Read our full McAfee Internet Security review. Hardcore PC gamers may consider McAfee Gamer Security, which for $60 per year offers low-overhead protection for a single rig. But none of the McAfee products have a secure browser or webcam protection, which you often get with other premium antivirus programs.Īt the top is McAfee Total Protection Ultimate, which adds unlimited VPN service with no strings attached. The multi-device licenses of those two security suites also come with an identity-protection service. To get parental controls or one of the best password managers in the business, you'll have to spring for McAfee Total Protection or its sibling McAfee LiveSafe, which comes pre-installed on many new PCs.

McAfee's malware detection has improved greatly in the past couple of years, but it's still not quite top-of-the-line.ĭespite that, the entry-level McAfee AntiVirus Plus is a bargain: $60 per year buys software for up to 10 (in practice, unlimited) devices, whether they run Windows, macOS, iOS or Android, and the software comes with a file shredder and a two-way firewall. The best antivirus software for big families Read our full Kaspersky Total Security review. The premium antivirus suite, Kaspersky Total Security (£19.99 UK/$44.99 US), adds backup software, parental controls, file encryption, a file shredder and an unlimited password manager. It also includes software for macOS, Android and iOS. It has a secure browser, anti-theft protection for laptops, webcam protection and a limited-use VPN client that kicks in when you connect to an open Wi-Fi network. Kaspersky Internet Security (£17.49 UK/$39.99 US) is our top choice among midrange packages. But it's beaten by Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, which has even more features.

The entry-level program, Kaspersky Anti-Virus (starting at £12.49 UK/$29.99 US), has dedicated ransomware protection, a virtual keyboard and a convenient online account portal. Kaspersky's Windows products have excellent malware-detection scores and a light-to-moderate system-performance impact, the two most important criteria in our rankings. Read our full Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review. The midrange Bitdefender Internet Security adds parental controls, webcam protection and a two-way firewall, while Bitdefender Total Security tops off the lineup with an anti-theft feature for laptops, a system optimizer and licenses for Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android.Ī fourth product, Bitdefender Premium Security, is basically Total Security with unlimited VPN usage, a cross-platform password manager and priority tech support.īut the best deal is the Bitdefender Family Pack, which puts Total Security on up to 15 devices for (a frequently discounted) $120 per year. It also offers the most value, with a secure browser with a virtual keyboard, a Wi-Fi network scanner, a file shredder, protection against encrypting ransomware and Bitdefender's web-privacy software - features often found only with pricier antivirus packages. Its active scans don't add much to the background system impact, but that background load is a bit heavy. It has very good, if not perfect, malware-detection scores. The best antivirus software for valueīitdefender Antivirus Plus is our top choice among entry-level antivirus products. Yet every other digital-protection service you could possibly ask for is included with at least some of its bundles. Unlike some of the other best antivirus software makers, Norton doesn't offer a file shredder, file encryption or secure web browser with any of its products.

Their subscription prices run well into the triple digits, but still cost less than if you were to buy the identity protection, password manager, cloud-backup storage and antivirus software separately. If you want full-on identity protection, Norton offers three bundles with varying degrees of LifeLock service and even more online storage. Two other offerings, Norton 360 Premium and Norton 360 Platinum, give you more online storage and expand the antivirus and VPN coverage to 10 and 20 devices, respectively. It includes a password manager that works on all major platforms, unlimited VPN service, dark-web personal-data monitoring, parental controls and up to 50 GB of online storage space.

Malwarebytes premium october 2018