“It has little drain on resources, so even when a virus scan is in progress it’s barely noticeable that it’s working.” Best Award-Winning Protection: Kaspersky Total Security “As you would expect, Total Security does antivirus and antimalware very well, but it also includes loads of additional security features.” Best Free: Microsoft Windows Defender “Offers real-time definition-based protection for viruses, malware, trojans, ransomware, and other threats.” Best for Easy Navigation: Trend Micro Maximum Security “Trend Micro Maximum Security is one of the top-of-line offerings.” Best Alternative Free Antivirus: Avast Free Antivirus “Top-of-the-line considering it’s a free product.” Best for Older Windows Computers: F-Secure SAFE Antivirus “It’s easy to use, offers great protection from viruses, malware, and other internet threats.” Best for Deeper Protection: Norton 360 With LifeLock Select “This product is everything you need to protect your computers and devices from viruses.” Best for Multiple Windows Computers: McAfee Total Protection “An excellent suite of protection products that include antivirus, ransomware, a file shredder, a firewall, plus a password manager.” Best for No System Lag: AVG Internet Security “AVG Internet Security offers great protection against viruses, malware, Trojans, and other internet security threats.” Bitdefender Plus protects your computer in a number of ways. Virus definitions are regularly updated, so as you would expect, you’re protected even from the newest malware threats. But Bitdefender also includes multi-layer ransomware protection and includes a personal VPN that lets you surf the web anonymously, without being tracked. A password manager, online payment protection, social network protection, and rescue mode round out a well-chosen set of many security tools. Bitdefender Plus allows for a 30-day free trial, and the base annual subscription costs around $50 per year. That base subscription supports up to three devices, but a slight price increase will up that to 5 or 10 devices depending on your needs. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is available for Windows 10, 8.1, 8, and Windows 7 (SP1). It does not support macOS, Android, or iOS, but other versions of the Bitdefender product are available to support devices running those platforms. One nice benefit of Kaspersky Total Protection that you may not find with some of the other antivirus applications on this list is the two-way firewall included in the Total Protection package. This ensures that the perimeter of your system is completely protected both for incoming and outgoing traffic. Additional, Kaspersky Total security offers webcam protection, a VPN, exploit prevention, password protection, a file shredder, and many more features you may not expect to find on a mid-range antivirus product. Kaspersky Total Security costs around $50 per year and offers protection on up to five devices. You can increase that 10 devices for a slight bump in cost. It supports Windows 10, 8.7 and 8.1; macOS X 10.12 or higher, Android 5.0 or higher, and iOS 12.0 or higher. Of course, Windows Defender offers real-time definition-based antivirus protection for viruses, malware, trojans, ransomware, and other threats. Also available are parental controls and scanning for USB drives, external hard drives, and disk drives. Windows Defender’s usability is also greatly improved, with a graphical user interface that is easy to navigate and includes explanations for first-time users and those not familiar with what should be protected or why. Advanced users can tweak capabilities for the antivirus scanning and firewall, and even make changes at the registry level to gain greater control of their Windows PC. Windows Defender has been known to frequently catch JavaScript and other programming code as false positives for security threats. But that one flaw aside, Windows Defender Security System is a great free option for a PC that might otherwise remain unprotected. Maximum security is very easy to navigate and offers the antivirus scanning you would expect, as well as many other features such as e-mail scanning. Password protection, ransomware protection, and parental controls. The most exciting features that Maximum Security offers, however, are the cloud protection scanning, which scans Microsoft and PDF documents in your cloud storage accounts and the social media privacy controls. Unfortunately, you won’t get a firewall with this security suite. An annual subscription for Trend Micro Maximum Security is on the low-end of the price scale, coming in at around $40 for up to five devices and a very modest jump in price will get you protection for up to 10 devices. The security suite also works for Microsoft Windows 10, 8.1, and 7 (SP1 or higher), as well as for macOS 10.12 to 10.14 or higher, Android4.1 or later, and iOS 9 or later. Aside from being very easy to navigate, one aspect of Avast Free Antivirus we really liked during testing is the ability to download, install, and use the application without having to provide any kind of personally-identifying information, including an email address. The security provided by the application is also top-of-the-line considering it’s a free product. Avast provides definition-based scanning as well as heuristic monitoring, ransomware detection, and a Gaming Mode for distraction-free gaming and streaming. Avast Free Antivirus also includes some premium-level features like a Wi-Fi scanner and a password vault. Avast is available for Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 (SP1 or higher) Vista, and XP (SP3 or higher); macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or later, iOS 12.0 or later, and Android 4.1 Android 6.0 (Marshmallow, API 23) or higher. You won’t find a lot of bells and whistles with F-Secure SAFE; it does a good job with antivirus protection, protecting you while you’re surfing or shopping online, and provides ransomware protection and parental controls. There’s not much more to it than that. Where F-Secure wins, however, is in its ability to run nearly seamlessly on older Windows computers. And while it works beautifully on Windows 10 computers, it doesn’t devour system resources, so even users running older Windows 7 (SP1) computers won’t encounter lots of difficulties with conflicts and other system issues when F-Secure SAFE is installed. F-Secure SAFE is also a very affordable antivirus application. For around $40, users can get 12 months protection for up to three devices, but there are also plans for five or seven devices if you need to add more computers. And additional platforms supported include macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later, iOS 13 or later, Android 6.0 or later. Unfortunately, ARM-based tablets are not supported. Aside from the normal antivirus protection, you would expect from any Norton product, Norton 360 with LifeLock Select offers a secure VPN, credit monitoring, and 100GB cloud backup capabilities. 360 with LifeLock Select also provides Dark Web Monitoring, webcam security, social security number and credit alerts, and a host of additional features. For users who want to know that not only are they protected from viruses and malware, but also from other threats they could encounter, this is a full-service package that offers nearly everything you could ever need. Of course, with this kind of protection comes a much higher price tag than some of the other products in this list. Users can pay monthly, for around $10 a month or a yearly subscription costs around $100 per month, and the subscription includes up to five devices, including Windows computers, Mac computers, smartphones, and tablets. That’s great, because McAfee Total Protection offers an excellent suite of protection products that include antivirus, ransomware protection, a file shredder, a firewall, network monitoring, plus a password manager. Add in identity theft protection and parental controls, and you have a well-rounded antivirus application designed to keep you safe from any threat you may encounter online or through e-mail. Subscriptions for McAfee Total Protection can be a little confusing because you’ll pay almost as much for a single license as you will a license that covers 10 devices. The higher subscription level is around $45 per month and the lower is around $35. There’s also a mid-tier subscription level, which covers five devices, but we think the extra cost of the 10-license package is with an extra $10 per month because the lower two tiers don’t include all the features that are available for McAfee Total Protection. And since McAfee also works on a variety of devices, including Microsoft Windows 10, 8.1, 8, and 7 (SP1), macOS X 10.12 or later, Android 4.1 or higher, and iOS 10 or later, 10 licenses will disappear very quickly. In addition to the usual quick scan and full scan capabilities that you’ll find with most antivirus applications, AVG Internet Security also offers easy-to-use scans for USB and DVD drives, individual files and folders, and e-mail messages and file attachments. Of course, you’ll also find the usual ransomware protection and privacy protection capabilities, but AVG Internet Security also includes an Enhanced Firewall and webcam protection. The one pitfall to using AVG Internet Security is the constant, persistent attempts to get you to upgrade to the higher AVG offering, AVG Ultimate. At around $70 per year, AVG is a little on the expensive side, and you must declare the number of devices you intend to use the application on during the purchase process. However, AVG Internet Security is supported on Windows 10; Windows 10, 8, and 7, and there are also apps available for macOS and Android devices.
