You can try out Avira risk-free with a day money-back guarantee. Get Protected with Avira Now. Kaspersky also lets you use a virtual keyboard when handling online payments to avoid keyloggers. Kaspersky offers a well-designed antivirus package with a good anti-malware scanner and useful extras like a secure browser for online finances. Get Protected with Kaspersky Now. BullGuard offers powerful anti-malware protection, along with many additional features — including an excellent gamer booster, a customizable firewall, a performance optimizer, intuitive parental controls, and identity theft protections.
I also think BullGuard has one of the best phishing protections around, scoring perfect results when I tested it against hundreds of fake websites.
During my tests, Game Booster increased my frame rate and decreased my load times while playing high-performance games like Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Apex Legends — I was honestly impressed!
This feature helped BullGuard rank as the 1 best antivirus for gamers. BullGuard Antivirus includes malware and phishing protection, game booster, and coverage for 1 device. BullGuard Internet Security adds multi-device coverage, performance optimization, and parental controls. BullGuard Premium Protection also includes a home network scanner and identity theft protection.
BullGuard provides a good malware scanner, lots of added features, and a specialized game booster that improves performance for PC gamers. Users looking for extras like identity theft protection and coverage for up to 10 devices can download BullGuard Premium Protection , while gamers looking for a simple antivirus for 3 devices should check out BullGuard Internet Security. Get Protected with BullGuard Now. Panda offers its advanced virus scanner and easy-to-use interface across 5 different pricing plans — I love that Panda provides its excellent security solution to everyone, regardless of budget.
One Panda extra I really like is the Rescue Kit, which is a bootable version of Panda that can be operated from a thumb drive in case your computer gets heavily infected by malware. Even the free plan is pretty good, offering real-time virus protection — something that many free antivirus products lack. If you want a simple free malware scanner with real-time protection or a full-featured internet security suite, Panda has an option for you.
Panda comes with lots of extras, including advanced ransomware protection, a Rescue Kit for saving malware-infected PCs, a password manager, parental controls, and a file encrypter and shredder.
Get Protected with Panda Now. Trend Micro has a decent anti-malware engine as well as some of the best phishing protection on this list. Phishing scams are increasingly common, and they can be very difficult for antivirus software to detect. Web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox integrate some phishing protection.
Trend Micro Internet Security protects up to 3 devices PC only and adds device optimization tools, social networking protection, and parental controls. Trend Micro offers a strong set of security and privacy features for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS users — the company even has a Chromebook app! Trend Micro is particularly good at phishing protection, and it will help you avoid malicious websites seeking to steal your credit card numbers or passwords.
All Trend Micro plans are backed by a day money-back guarantee. Get Protected with Trend Micro Now. Malwarebytes is a simplistic, easy-to-use antivirus that offers good virus protection for all operating systems and devices. Malwarebytes also comes with excellent web protections, which successfully identified and blocked most of the phishing sites I tried visiting during testing. You want antivirus software that can successfully identify these unknown online threats without flagging too many false positives.
Light on system resources. You don't want antivirus software that taxes your PC's resources. If after you install the program, websites open slowly, apps download or open sluggishly or file copies take longer than expected, you may want to try another service.
The good news is, all our picks offer a free trial to let you try out the antivirus program, so if your system feels sluggish after installation, you may want to keep looking. Cost and discounts. Don't just pay the sticker price for antivirus protection. Before you buy, check for discounts on a company's website. Another way to save: The prices we list above are for 10 devices -- if the company offered that package -- but you can trim your cost with antivirus packages if you need to cover three or five devices.
You may also find discounts on an app's Amazon page. To be effective, antivirus software needs to monitor what's going on with your PC, check in with company servers about unusual behavior and should provide sound banking protection.
The companies say they anonymize this technical data as much as possible to protect your privacy. But if you want to know more, the security companies on our list post privacy policies on their websites, so read their privacy statements to learn what the companies do with the information you share.
Protection for other platforms. Microsoft is by far the biggest target for viruses and malware. While the Mac does come under attack via side-loaded apps, it's rare, and if you download apps only from the Mac and iOS app stores and keep your guard up when clicking links and download files, you should be OK without an antivirus app on Apple devices. CNET editors pick the products and services we write about. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission.
Best free Windows antivirus Microsoft Defender. Jump to details. See at Microsoft. See at NortonLifeLock. See at Bitdefender. Best on-demand Windows malware removal Malwarebytes.
See at Malwarebytes. Solid subscription antivirus alternative McAfee Total Protection. See at McAfee. Another good subscription option Trend Micro Maximum Security. See at Trend Micro. See at ESET. Alternative free Windows antivirus Sophos Home. See at Sophos. Malwarebytes also has really good phishing protection, with near-perfect detection rates, as well as a decent VPN.
Download Malwarebytes Now. Trend Micro has a good malware scanner and decent internet security tools for Windows users. Trend Micro has a good cloud-based malware scanner as well as decent extras like data breach monitor and email phishing protection.
Download Trend Micro Now. ESET provides an advanced anti-malware engine and diagnostic tools for security experts — while ESET is a good choice for highly tech-minded users, most users should look elsewhere.
ESET provides secure antivirus protection along with some unique features for advanced users. If comprehensive system usage reports and device encryption tools sound like an appealing extra, then ESET is a great choice.
If you have no idea what those features are, then check out one of the other programs on my list. Cylance is an ok choice for users without any previous experience using an antivirus, but there are much better choices, even for non-technical users. Cylance provides a good AI-based malware scanner and not much else.
Cylance is available for up to 10 users, and it offers a day money-back guarantee. Download Cylance Now. Yes, most Windows 10 computers come pre-installed with Windows Defender, which is much more useful now than it was a few years ago. However, it does not provide the same malware protection that the other antiviruses on this list do. But if you keep any kind of sensitive info on your computer — logins, passwords, banking info, photos, etc.
While there are a few free Windows antiviruses that do a decent job of protecting your PC, none of them will fully protect all of your data. Antiviruses like Norton and McAfee have a huge range of internet security features that make sure your computer and all of your most important data is fully protected from the latest cyber threats. All of the antiviruses on this list will run smoothly, quickly, and without performance issues.
The top Windows 10 antivirus of — Norton — will not slow down your PC system at all, regardless of how you use it. Many antiviruses cover multiple operating systems across Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac devices, including most on this list.
All of these antiviruses have been ranked and rated for Windows, but they all have other OS support which is equally as impressive. Professional Reviews. The dataset was divided into the key features for an antivirus service: price, customer support, user experience, app ratings, and core features.
With the key features set apart, we weighted the results and assigned each of the features a score. The combination of these scores is what you see in the five-star rating above. Although we looked at everything from support to ransomware protection, there were a few key areas that took precedence in our ranking. The first was the price. Outside of that, we paid attention to features and extra protection measures. Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender, which is a free antivirus service.
If you have highly sensitive data, an antivirus program can serve as an insurance policy if nothing else. Between browser security and Windows Defender a built-in antivirus in Windows 10 , you can keep yourself protected by following good security practices like avoiding suspicious links and using unique passwords across websites.
That said, a dedicated antivirus program has upsides. Antivirus providers have business plans that can help keep company resources protected from ransomware attacks and employees from phishing schemes. Jacob Roach is a writer and technology enthusiast.
He specializes in computing and small business software, lending his experience to sites like Digital Trends, Business Insider, and Cloudwards.
You can follow him on Twitter ManowarElves. In that role, he was responsible for writing, editing, and strategizing content geared toward small business owners. Before that, he worked at PCMag as a business analyst. Select Region. United States. United Kingdom. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team. Jacob Roach, Rob Watts. Contributor, Editor. Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor.
Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Read more. Small Business Guides. Featured Partners. Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes.
Firewall included Yes. Email security Yes. Ransomware protection Yes. Why We Picked It. Options for small and large businesses Removable device protection Offers on-premise deployment. Each seat includes desktop and mobile protection Automatic software updater included Password manager included for every user.
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