If you're simply looking to protect your PC from viruses, trojans, and worms, then free Windows 10 antivirus from any reputable provider, will keep you protected against these. The difference with paid-for versions is that they add additional features that aim to protect tighter security, better privacy protections, and even tune up your PC.
For example, extra security features might include ransomware protection and the ability to ensure certain files or folders are locked down against any changes by third-party programs.
For privacy protection, there might be the inclusion of a VPN which allows for more anonymous web browsing. There might also be features in paid software to kill tracking cookies and other privacy protections.
Some paid-for plans even include features such as tuning up your PC, by getting rid of junk files from temporary or cache folders, as well as fix any registry issues that might also be slowing down your PC. If you like the idea of all the whistles and bells, then you may deem it worth shelling out for a more complete internet security suite. So, overall, if all you want is the most essential virus protection, then free software will do its job.
However, if you want a wider range of malware protection, extra privacy controls, and even additional tools to help your PC run more smoothly, then paid-for anti-virus can often offer some or all of these, and more. Having trouble with your computer? It may be valuable to know how to start Windows 10 in Safe Mode.
Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace. He now covers VPNs, antivirus and all things security for TechRadar, although he still has a secret love of quirky open-source and freeware apps which find brand new ways to solve common problems. North America. If you use a Windows system then you're an attractive target for hackers simply because it's the world's most popular PC operating system.
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. Specifications Maximum devices covered: Reasons to avoid - Minor ransomware clean-up niggles. Norton AntiVirus Plus. Specifications Maximum devices covered: 1. Reasons to avoid - Uses more resources than some rivals. Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows. Specifications Maximum devices covered: 5. Stand out features: Highly configurable virus scans, self-protection defense, System Watcher module. Reasons to avoid - Rather feeble extras. Think of autos at a dealership.
You can get a base-model car that will get you from place to place just fine. For a few grand more, you can buy a car with satellite radio, but no heated side-view mirrors, alloy wheels or in-car Wi-Fi hotspot. Or you can spend a lot more to get a loaded car with all the fixin's. Antivirus makers also hope you'll spring for extra options, whether you need them or not. The one thing you can't trade up to is a bigger engine: All the Windows antivirus products in a given brand's lineup will use the same malware-detection engine and provide the same level of essential protection.
The software will have essential malware protection and maybe a password manager or a two-way firewall. They generally add parental controls, some of which are very good, plus a few other features such as webcam protection. They often include multi-device licenses and antivirus software for Mac and Android devices.
At the top are the premium "security suites," which toss in all the extra security tools an antivirus brand can offer, such as password managers, VPN client software, backup software, online storage and even identity-protection services.
The password managers are often quite good, but the online storage can be paltry and the VPN services often don't give you unlimited data. We've collected the best premium antivirus packages on this list of the best internet security suites. Our evaluations are based on each antivirus program's interface, performance, protection and extra features. Was the interface intuitive and user-friendly?
How badly did malware scans slow performance? How well did the program detect and remove malware? Does the program offer useful additional tools? Some of our newer performance tests were done on a Lenovo ThinkPad T with a 2. To assess a program's impact on system speed on both Windows and macOS, we used our own custom tests, which measure how long a CPU takes to match 20, names and addresses on an OpenOffice or Excel spreadsheet.
The longer it took the laptop to finish either test, the heavier the performance impact. Each lab subjects the major antivirus brands' products to stress tests involving thousands of pieces of malware, including hundreds of previously unseen samples.
Kaspersky antivirus products have been banned from U. Because the company is Russian and antivirus software can peer deep into a PC, using Kaspersky software would create an unacceptable risk for persons and organizations involved in national security and critical infrastructure. However, we still think Kaspersky software is perfectly safe for home users.
We've seen no evidence to convince us otherwise. Kaspersky researchers are well respected throughout the antivirus industry, and the company has publicly exposed Russian cyberespionage campaigns as well as those from the United States and other countries around the world. Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor.
He's been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews. If you use a Windows PC, you'll need to have one of the best antivirus programs installed, whether free or paid. View Deal. Bitdefender offers the best value in antivirus software. Norton packs in everything but the kitchen sink. Kaspersky Total Security. Specifications Anti-theft: Yes. Backup software: Yes. Firewall: Yes. Game mode: Yes. Hardened browser: Yes.
Parental controls: Yes. Password manager: Yes. Ransomware rollback: Yes. Webcam protection: Yes. Virtual keyboard: Yes. VPN: Limited upsell. Wi-Fi scanner: Yes. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. Specifications Anti-theft: No.
Backup software: No. Firewall: No. Parental controls: No. Webcam protection: No. Reasons to avoid - Heavy background system impact. Norton Deluxe.
Hardened browser: No. Ransomware rollback: No. VPN: Unlimited. Reasons to avoid - Heavy slowdown during full scans - Pricey. McAfee Internet Security. Virtual keyboard: No. Reasons to avoid - Very heavy performance hit - No parental controls on mid-priced tier. Trend Micro Maximum Security. Specifications Backup software: No. Reasons to avoid - Heavy performance hit during scans - Many false positives on some tests.
Game mode: No. Password manager: No. Wi-Fi scanner: No. Reasons to avoid - So-so malware protection - Moderate performance penalty during scans - Lacks VPN, password manager, file shredder. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free. Specifications Email scans: Yes. Password manager: Limited. Ransomware reversal: Yes. Scan scheduler: Yes. Support options: FAQs, forums. Upsell nag factor: Moderate. Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition.
Specifications Email scans: No. Ransomware reversal: No. Scan scheduler: No. Upsell nag factor: Minimal. Reasons to avoid - No extra features whatsoever - No quick scans or scan scheduling.
Windows Defender Antivirus. Password manager: Yes, with other Microsoft apps. Upsell nag factor: Nonexistent. Reasons to avoid - Some features work only on Microsoft products - Hard to schedule scans. Avast Free Antivirus. Specifications Email scans: Separate tool. Hardened browser: Separate tool. Password manager: Not any more. Ransomware reversal: Shield only. Support options: : FAQs, forums.
Or at the other end of the scale, maybe you have a large family with a ton of devices to protect, and you need a package to cater for that.
Or maybe you want a VPN service as well as antivirus, so a bundled package will save you a lot of money on subscription fees. In short, our recommendations are here as firm guidance, but modify these appropriately based on your individual requirements. For more thoughts on this, check out our article exploring how to choose the best antivirus. The good news is that the best antivirus products are getting cheaper and cheaper to purchase, and free products are getting more and more effective A good free antivirus — like the ones we recommend on this page below — is a perfectly reasonable option for protecting your PC, with Microsoft Defender now the best we've ever seen it.
That said, premium antivirus programs offer extra features above and beyond the fundamentals. A robust system of parental controls could be a huge win for those with kids, for example. Or a dedicated anti-ransomware layer of protection that only comes with the paid-for product could help catch one of the most dreaded infections and halt it in its tracks.
For more on this, read our full piece on whether free antivirus is enough to protect you. Or just keep scrolling as we reveal today's best free antivirus software providers Paying for a premium service means you get more features like spam filters, parental controls, system scans and advanced firewalls.
This makes them more suitable for power users, those who want a bit of extra security and anyone who needs their system to run as smoothly as possible. It also means you avoid annoying pop-ups that try and tempt you to upgrade to the full version. In fact, these days you can get top quality protection absolutely free, with just about every single major vendor out there offering a free antivirus.
Avira Free Antivirus is today's best free security download If you're determined to get free antivirus, we strongly suggest that you go for our pick of best security downloads - Avira Free Antivirus. We've highlighted its long list of features below, together with information on how well it performs at independent testing labs.
A very impressive freebie. That's pretty good for a freebie, and why we have no qualms at all in naming it as our 1 best free antivirus download. As well as the essential security smarts, we also love the clean, friendly interface and the fact it has a track record of throwing up minimal false positives. In fact, the list of features reads more like a fully paid premium package. It throws in identity protection, a password manager, anti-scam protection to prevent phishing attempts, and even a PC cleaner to keep your system spick and span.
If there's one thing we'd change then it's the tad overeager badgering - although popups and advertisements are very common to free products, and that doesn;t prevent us from wholeheartedly recommending Avira Free Antivirus. Review and where to download: Avira Free Antivirus. Avast and AVG haven't yet fully merged, despite the former formally acquiring the latter in mid The newly combined company says the two free antivirus products will remain separate, although there's apparently a joint AV package on the way soon.
Obviously, though, Avast now has a lot more data to work with, having expanded its effective userbase and, therefore, its threat detection network to a whopping million users. The latest edition of Avast's free antivirus - now branded Avast One Essential - adds an automatic gaming mode to mute popups and reduce system load when you're firing up a processor-hungry game, which is very handy indeed, and the interface has been given a clean new overhaul. There's a password manager, too, which is an undeniably good addition to your security portfolio.
It scores well on AV-TEST's widespread malware benchmark and continues a clean sweep against 0-day attacks — presumably that expanded detection network is really helping.
Less impressive is the slight negative effect Avast has on software launch times, and its slightly popup-heavy attitude. Review and where to download: Avast Free Antivirus. Microsoft Defender formerly Windows Defender was generally seen as a bit of a joke in the not-too-distant past.
It performed terribly by most measures and was a good advert for why you should really pay for antivirus. But as we explain further up this article, Microsoft Defender has come on leaps and bounds and can now legitimately be mentioned in the same company as Bitdefender, Norton and Kaspersky. As well as very solid virus protection, Defender has extra bits and bobs like a ransomware shield, webcam protection, privacy tools and even basic parental controls and cloud backup.
And the best bit No need to download a thing, just find it in your menu and get protected straight away. Read more and see how to use: Microsoft Defender review. The paid-for version of Kaspersky's Windows security software frequently tops charts of best virus prevention solutions and AV-TEST once again gave it full marks across the board in its latest round of testing.
As you would expect, Kaspersky Free is a scaled down version of the full program - a tool that we really like more on which below.
The free version ditches additional features such as privacy protection and safe payment sandboxes to concentrate on powerful, no-frills and - most importantly - free protection for your PC. The result is a tremendously easy to use and navigate bit of software that does an effective job of keeping you protected from viruses. Using the nuts and bolts real-world scanning engine of the paid-for suite, Kaspersky Free is fiendishly hard for viruses and trojan horses to break down.
And we love that it doesn't constantly pester you with nudges to upgrade to the full version. But, ironically, we will just for a moment, because Kasperksy Anti-Virus isn't expensive to buy and yet affords much better protection to your PC or PCs. Review and where to download: Kaspersky Free. Marketing itself as "business-grade security", Sophos Home does a little more than most free antivirus software, and actually seems better suited to families.
You get standard virus protection and anti-malware protection, along with browser tools like anti-phishing and, most importantly, content control.
Combined with central management of up to 10 PCs, this means you can effectively lock down your kids' browsing options. Although Sophos Home has always had desktop notifications, there was no premium version of the software for it to encourage an upgrade to.
That changed in February with the launch of Sophos Home Premium. Review and where to download: Sophos Home. Each entry in this list has been carefully chosen for its business features, such as remote installation and central management. The best business antivirus software will have enterprise-level protection against threats, but that doesn't mean they have to cost a lot of money, either. The price per installation can sometimes be cheaper than even our recommended best antivirus packages.
Avast Business Antivirus Pro An excellent business antivirus suite, giving you various tools such as virus protection, Firewall, email protection, anti-spam and the ability to sandbox applications for complete security. Avast Business Antivirus Pro as opposed to the standard Avast Business Antivirus also includes Sharepoint and Exchange protection, as well as a number of tools for your servers.
Bitdefender products are loved by the independent testing labs, highly rated for malware detection, removal, performance and usability. Most of the features work automatically — anti-malware, firewall, web advisor, URL filtering — but you can also customise the product to control user actions. Symantec Endpoint Protection Symantec's first benefit is the company's Insight file reputation technology, an effective way to detect and block even the very latest undiscovered threats. Other layers of protection include virus protection, behaviour monitoring, intrusion protection, a firewall, and the 'Power Eraser' to remove stubborn threats and repair your system.
Avira Antivirus for Endpoint This is Avira's main small business product. It takes all the core features you'd expect — antivirus, baseline network protection, web filtering — and extends them with file server protection and optimisation, along with application whitelisting and blacklisting.
The desktop side of the package has all the usual quality Kaspersky modules — antivirus, antispam, a firewall, more — but the mobile security technologies are even more impressive. Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace.
He now covers VPNs, antivirus and all things security for TechRadar, although he still has a secret love of quirky open-source and freeware apps which find brand new ways to solve common problems. North America. If you're looking for the best possible protection for your online devices in , then you've come to the right place - we've tested all of the best antivirus providers out there to come up with a definitive list of the absolute greatest.
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