The multi-device licenses of those two security suites also come with an identity-protection service. But none of the McAfee products have a secure browser or webcam protection, which you often get with other premium antivirus programs. Read our full McAfee Internet Security review. Trend Micro offers very good protection, but its malware-detection engine creates a heavy system load during scans and returns a fair number of false-positive results.
Parental controls, a system optimizer and a file shredder are bundled into the mid-range Trend Micro Internet Security. Trend Micro Maximum Security adds a password manager, a secure browser and file encryption, while the new Trend Micro Premium Security adds a VPN and dark-web monitoring of personal data.
However, none of Trend Micro's programs include a two-way firewall or webcam protection, standard with other brands' midrange offerings. Nor does the premium product have the cloud storage or backup software that some of the best antivirus brands add as enticements to their flagship packages.
Read our full Trend Micro Maximum Security review. ESET is one of the biggest antivirus names in Europe, with a very small system-performance load and fast scans. Its malware-detection rate used to be kind of meh, but has improved markedly in recent lab tests. However, there's no VPN client, backup software or file shredder. ESET's pricing is per device, which is optimal for users who might have more than a few devices to protect.
But if your device count gets into double digits, ESET's costs can add up. Sophos Home Premium does its job economically, offering reasonable protection from malware at an affordable price. Because it's spun off from Sophos' enterprise software for business clients, Sophos Home Premium lacks many of the bells and whistles other security suites offer, such as a password manager, identity theft protection service or VPN service. What Sophos Home Premium does have is the essentials: ransomware rollbacks, webcam defenses and protection against keyloggers, malicious websites and boot-sector and fileless malware.
It also has a web-filter system for parents and an online management console from which you can tweak most of the settings. Some people might demand more from an antivirus suite, but anyone who would rather buy only what they need will appreciate Sophos Home Premium's just-the-basics approach.
Read our full Sophos Home Premium review. A good paid antivirus suite is a digital-protection jackknife, often bundling in parental controls, identity theft protection, a password manager, backup software, cloud storage, a firewall, a system optimizer and software for Mac, Android and iOS as well as Windows.
But what if you just want Windows antivirus software without all of those pricey extras? And what if you can't afford to pay for antivirus software? One of the best free antivirus programs might be exactly what you need.
Free antivirus software used to be a step down from the paid software and involved trade-offs. The protection wasn't as good and you'd either have to put up with ads filling your screen or with constant nags to upgrade to a paid program.
That's all changed. One of the best antivirus makers, Kaspersky, offers a free version with the same excellent malware protections as its paid offerings.
Its top rival, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition, has been officially discontinued, although Tom's Guide readers can still download it with this link. A merger between the biggest names in free antivirus, Avast and AVG, created a combined malware-detection engine that's much better than the sum of its parts. Meanwhile, Microsoft's built-in antivirus software, Windows Defender, aka Microsoft Defender Antivirus, has gone from being a joke to being one of the best antivirus programs out there, free or paid.
You can now get free antivirus protection that's as good as anything you pay for. So here are the best free antivirus programs based on their protection, system impact, ease of use and extra features. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free 2. Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition 3.
Windows Defender Antivirus 4. Avast Free Antivirus 5. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free Antivirus may be the best free antivirus program we've ever seen. It has excellent malware protection, a decent set of extra functions and features, and a system-performance impact so small that our computer actually sped up after we installed the program.
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition has been officially discontinued, and we're not sure how long Tom's Guide readers can still download it. It's the best "set it and forget it" free antivirus option.
It's now one of the best antivirus programs altogether. You don't have to install or download it — it's already on your PC. If you want an unlimited password manager or a hardened web browser, Avast Free Antivirus might be for you. Its malware protection is much better than it once was, although its performance impact is fairly heavy.
Avast's stepsister AVG has the same malware-detection engine, but lacks Avast's full slate of useful extra features. But it does have a file shredder and system optimizer. We have to mention one program that's not antivirus software, but which we recommend anyway: Malwarebytes Free. While antivirus tries to stop malware from infecting your machine, Malwarebytes functions as the cleanup crew, sweeping out less-harmful adware or potentially unwanted programs that the antivirus software ignores.
It works well alongside any antivirus program. Kaspersky doesn't talk much about its free antivirus product, and you might have a hard time finding the free Kaspersky software download page on the company's website. That's too bad, because Kaspersky Security Cloud Free is the best free antivirus product we've ever tested.
We've never seen such a combination of excellent protection and extra features in a free antivirus program. It's got a bright, comprehensible interface, a lot of customization potential and Kaspersky's unbeatable malware protection.
The program also lets you schedule scans, and its performance impact was so small that it actually sped up our test machine a bit. Kaspersky's useful extra features include a file shredder, an on-screen keyboard and an email scanner. The password manager and VPN service are fairly limited, however, unless you pay.
Read our full Kaspersky Security Cloud Free review. Bitdefender has officially discontinued Antivirus Free Edition, and it will be supported only until June 30, We still love it and you can still get it , but proceed at your own risk. Compared to premium paid antivirus programs that are big, heavy and loaded with extra bells and whistles, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition is like a '60's sports car, stripped to the essentials but still providing plenty of power.
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition offers nothing but the basics. There's no password manager, no gaming mode, no quick scans and no scan scheduling. You can manage the software from the program's System Tray icon, but you don't really need to interact with Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition after its installation. Yet Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition has the excellent Bitdefender malware-detection engine, which sits just below Kaspersky and Norton in the lab-test rankings.
It's the best free antivirus software if you want a security solution that you can set up and then forget about. It's also perfect if you need to protect the computer of an elderly relative but don't have time to manage antivirus software from afar. Oftentimes, they can be remotely activated once the malware is installed or connects to your device.
Software that comes with the devices is often the target of hackers. Once they get into that, the camera is completely vulnerable since it is accepting commands from a legitimate source. Webcam protection presents some unusual challenges since it has to protect third-party software from itself. Parental controls are an important tool for keeping your children away from inappropriate content online, as well as protecting them from online predators. If you have children, your antivirus software needs to have parental controls.
Telephone This is the best option and the one that is least likely to be offered. Employee salaries are always a big cost of doing business and the one companies constantly try to reduce.
Online Online customer support can be a database of FAQs, real-time chat with an employee, or chat with a robot. Antivirus manufacturers often add features that sound great but are better purchased separately.
These features include password managers, online storage, and VPNs virtual private networks. The price per device is a better method. Unfortunately, when it comes to antivirus software, price and performance are rarely related.
Some of the best products are in this price range, offering great features and coverage for multiple devices. At installation, allow at least an hour for your antivirus to load and do a complete system scan. When the antivirus is loading, always choose the advanced option that lets you pick and choose what you want installed.
A full system scan can take a while. One of the most popular antivirus software is McAfee Total Protection. It has one of the lower prices on the market but allows you to protect an unlimited number of devices: PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets. It uses cloud-based and offline protection for all your devices, and it provides you with a full suite of parental controls so you can monitor your children and keep them safe when they're online.
Like many subscription-based antivirus packages, it auto-renews if you don't opt out. We also like Kaspersky Total Security. Their annually updated packages have an established pattern of full protection for up to five devices, which may be PCs, Macs, Android, and IOS devices. It stops viruses, phishing attacks, ransomware, and webcam spying, and it gives you an extra layer of protection during online banking sessions. In addition, it stops dangerous file downloads and has a shredder to protect your personal files.
What is an activation key? Most antivirus software requires a long alphanumeric code, referred to as an activation key, to unlock the package so it will work. What is a quarantine area? Will antivirus software slow down my system? All software uses system resources, and antivirus is no exception. Because it is continually scanning, it may slow it down more than other software. The pricing now covers fewer devices, but you get a good number of extra features such as Dark Web Monitoring and VPN access, making for an overall excellent value.
If Windows 10 is already working, why add anything else? If its built-in security suite, Windows Security, performs on par with the best of the free AV options—as we discovered in our roundup of the best free antivirus —why add the extra baggage of a third-party program? To learn more, see our video on How to use Windows Security , or read our full review. This antivirus suite, which provides highly rated protection, strikes a nice balance between complexity and simplicity: Four category icons at the top let you dive deeper into the suite, but if all you need to do is a scan, that option is right there in the center of interface.
These days, many security suites come with extras such as a backup service for your most essential files, Android apps for mobile security, a more advanced firewall, family protection read: child restriction features, and the right to use the program on multiple PCs.
Whether you need those extras depends on your personal situation. First, we take a look at the interface to determine how easy or complicated it is. Does the interface make it easy to get at essential tools like PC scans and password managers, for example, or is everything buried under multiple clicks? Are alerts interactive or purely informational, and does that make sense in context? Avira offers multiple products for personal use, but only one product for businesses: Avira Prime.
Those are just on Windows, too. Avira has platform-specific features like secure QR code scanning on Android and iOS, as well as web protection through browsers. Who Should Use It: Small businesses that want comprehensive protection for a low monthly price. McAfee is one of the biggest names in antivirus, and its Endpoint Protection for SMB services offers comprehensive protection for businesses.
In addition to scheduled scans and real-time protection for Windows and Mac, Endpoint Protection offers browser security and data protection on removable devices. Admins can deploy an on-premise version of Endpoint Protection to have control over every aspect of security.
You can protect up to 10 devices at once, though the features are more focused on personal use. Kaspersky offers the Small Office Security package for between five and 50 users. The core of the package is local scanning and real-time protection. On top of that, Kaspersky offers internet, email and browser security to protect against some of the most common threats employees face. Kaspersky Small Office Security can get expensive depending on how many seats you need.
That said, each additional seat adds protection for desktop and mobile, as well as another password manager license. Who Should Use It: Businesses with fewer than 50 people that want proactive protection against common threats.
Avast offers several different antivirus packages for business. Teams of under 10 can protect themselves with Small Office Protection, which includes ransomware, email and internet protection.
In addition to real-time protection across desktop, mobile and web, Bitdefender offers a suite of threat forecasts that can help you seal up any leaking holes before they become a problem. Before an attack, admins can monitor things like the number of unencrypted web pages employees visit. After an attack, Bitdefender gives you the tools to break down and understand why the attack happened and how to avoid it in the future. On top of that, Bitdefender leverages machine learning to predict and block threats before they can impact your business.
Who Should Use It: Businesses that need to monitor and analyze threats before they can happen. Emsisoft employs four different protection layers to keep your data safe from nearly all threats.
It starts with protection from malicious websites in the browser, protecting your business from the most significant threats. After that, Emsisoft uses machine learning to detect zero-day malware and block it in real-time. That should cover most threats, but Emsisoft goes further. The software uses behavior analysis to detect potentially malicious apps, and it uses that analysis to detect things like ransomware before it can encrypt your data. Outside of protection, Emsisoft includes a centralized web dashboard for seeing the protection across your business.
Here, you can manage your teams, set custom protection policies and much more. Who Should Use It: Anyone looking for holistic protection that you can manage through a centralized dashboard. F-Secure takes a different approach to business antivirus. All of its services are centered around F-Secure Elements, which is a cloud-native platform that allows you to choose the protection you need. There are four services available, each protecting a different aspect of businesses. For most, Endpoint Protection is the most critical element.
Powered by AI and based in the cloud, Endpoint Protection can help your business reduce attack surfaces, identify threats from community-sourced data and defend your data in the event a breach happens.
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