By Antivirus apps for your PC protect your personal information, data, bank accounts, and much more. We’ve tested more than two dozen utilities to help you choose the best antivirus for your needs.
New Computer
If you got a new computer as a holiday gift, it almost certainly came with antivirus already installed. That wasn’t always true. Antivirus programs have been around almost as long as viruses, and PC Mag has been reviewing them from the start. Even 30 years ago, our antivirus roundups included familiar names like Norton, Panda, and Trend Micro.
Types of Malware
As new antivirus releases appear, we challenge them with real-world tests using actual ransomware and other types of malware, and we report on which are most capable. Based on our hands-on testing, independent lab testing, feature analysis, and decades of experience, we’ve designated Bitdefender Antivirus Plus and Norton Anti-Virus Plus as our Editors’ Choice winners. Check out the summary of our top antivirus selections below, compare their specs side by side at the bottom of the story, and click through to our full reviews for more details.
What Is the Most Widely Used Antivirus Software?
Every Windows computer has Microsoft Defender Antivirus installed, making it the most widely installed antivirus. However, if you’ve installed third-party protection, Defender stays on the sidelines. If no other antivirus is present or your existing antivirus expires, Defender steps up.
Commercial antivirus apps offer protection beyond what’s included with Windows, but Defender is looking better lately, with some solid scores from independent testing labs. The combination of good lab scores and a great score in our hands-on malware protection test brought its rating up to 3.5 stars. As it is a free, built-in utility, however, we’re not including it in this roundup of commercial antivirus apps.
What Is the Best Free Antivirus Software?
You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re looking for free antivirus—our list here includes the best antivirus software overall, and they’re not free. Head over to the best free antivirus for our top picks there.
What Is the Best Antivirus for macOS?
All of the software listed here works on Windows, but if you’re an Apple user, check out our story on the best Mac antivirus software.
McAfee vs. Norton: Which Is Better?
As for the most-used commercial antivirus software, survey results vary, but Norton and McAfee generally appear at or near the top. Is Norton or McAfee better? Both are good, but of the two PC Mag has identified Norton as an Editors’ Choice.
What Is the Best Virus Protection According to Independent Tests?
We take the results reported by independent antivirus testing labs seriously. The simple fact that a company’s antivirus shows up in the results is a vote of confidence, of sorts. It means that the lab considered the program significant, and the company felt the cost of testing was worthwhile. Of course, high scores on the tests are also important.
We follow four labs that regularly release detailed reports: SE Labs, AV-Test Institute, MRG-Effitas, and AV-Comparatives. We’ve devised a system for aggregating their results to yield a rating from 0 to 10.
How We Test Malware, Spyware, and Adware Defenses
We also subject every antivirus app to our own hands-on test of malware protection, in part to get a feeling for how the app works. Depending on how thoroughly the antivirus prevents malware installation, it can earn up to 10 points for malware protection.
Malware Protection Test
Our malware protection test necessarily uses the same set of samples for months. To check a program’s handling of brand-new malware, we test each antivirus using a large collection of extremely new malware-hosting URLs supplied by MRG-Effitas, noting what percentage of them it blocked.
Apps get equal credit for preventing all access to the malicious URL and for wiping out the malware during download.
Some apps earn stellar ratings from the independent labs yet don’t fare as well in our hands-on tests. In such cases, we defer to the labs, as they bring significantly greater resources to their testing. Want to know more? You can dig in for a detailed description of how we test security software.
What’s the Best Antivirus for Malware Protection?
Antivirus utilities distinguish themselves by going beyond the basics of on-demand scanning and real-time malware protection. Some rate URLs that you visit or that show up in search results using a red-yellow-green color-coding system. Some actively block processes on your system from connecting with known malware-hosting URLs or fraudulent (phishing) pages.
Software Has Flaws
All software has flaws, and sometimes those flaws affect your security. Prudent users keep Windows and all programs patched, fixing those flaws as soon as possible. The vulnerability scan offered by some antivirus apps can verify all necessary patches are present and even apply any that are missing.
Trojans Masquerading
Spyware comes in many forms, from hidden programs that log your every keystroke to Trojans masquerading as valid programs while mining your data. Any antivirus should handle spyware, along with all other types of malware, but some include specialized components devoted to spyware protection.
You expect an antivirus to identify and eliminate bad programs and leave good programs alone. What about unknowns, programs your AV can’t identify as good or bad? Behavior-based detection can, in theory, protect you against malware, so new researchers have never encountered it. However, this isn’t always an unmixed blessing. It’s not uncommon for behavioral detection systems to flag many innocuous behaviors performed by legitimate programs.
Type of Security System
Allow listing is another approach to the problem of unknown programs. This type of security system only allows known good programs to run; unknowns are banned. This mode doesn’t suit all situations, but it can be useful. Sandboxing lets unknown programs run, but it isolates them from full access to your system so they can’t do permanent harm. These various added layers serve to enhance your protection against malware.
What’s the Best Antivirus for Ransomware Protection and Firewall?
Firewalls and spam filtering aren’t common antivirus features, but some of our top picks include them as bonuses. Some of these antivirus programs are even more feature-packed than certain security suites.
virtual keyboards
Among the other bonus features you’ll find are secure browsers for financial transactions, secure deletion of sensitive files, wiping traces of computer and browsing history, credit monitoring, virtual keyboards to foil keyloggers, cross-platform protection, and more. And, of course, we’ve already mentioned sandboxing, vulnerability scanning, and application allow listing.
antivirus apps
We’re seeing more and more antivirus apps adding modules specifically designed for ransomware protection. Some work by preventing unauthorized changes to protected files. Others keep watch for suspicious behaviors that suggest malware. Some even aim to reverse the damage. Given the growth of this scourge, any added protection is beneficial.
Beyond Antivirus: Install a VPN
Your antivirus utility works in the background to keep out any faint possibility of infestation by malware, but its abilities don’t extend beyond the bounds of your computer. When you connect to the wild and wooly internet, you risk the possibility of your data being compromised in transit.
Sticking to HTTPS websites when possible can help, but for full protection of your data in transit, you should install a VPN (virtual private network). This component is important enough that we’re starting to see it as a bonus feature in some antivirus tools.
What Is the Best Antivirus Software Now?
Which antivirus should you choose? While you have many options, two stand out from the rest. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus holds perfect and near-perfect scores from three independent antivirus testing labs, with more features than some security suites. Norton Anti Virus Plus likewise offers many suite-level features, and it gets excellent scores from all four testing labs we follow.
We’ve named these two our Editors’ Choice winners for commercial antivirus, but they’re not the only antivirus apps worth consideration. Read the reviews of our top-rated programs, then make your own decision.
