Jul 30, 2018 - Choosing the best antivirus software for a Windows or Mac computer can be tough. With these tips from Consumer Reports testers, it's a whole.
Rubenking The Best Antivirus Protection for 2019 Antivirus software is critical for every PC. Without it, you risk losing your personal information, your files, and even the cash from your bank account. We've tested more than 40 utilities to help you pick the best antivirus protection for your computers. Malware, Spyware, and Adware Protection With the approach of winter, the days get shorter and (for some) the snow piles up. Staying inside and playing games or enjoying social media starts to seem like a truly excellent idea. How sad, then, if a fraudster uses a phishing attack to steal your online game login; that character you spent so much time on is gone, along with all your in-game gold.
It's even worse if ransomware locks down your computer completely, demanding that you send bitcoin to an iffy address. Don't let malware dampen your holiday spirit. Install a powerful. Which one should you choose?
We've put more than 40 antivirus tools to the test, to help you pick. We call it antivirus, but in truth it's unlikely you'll get hit with an actual computer virus. Malware these days is about making money, and there's no easy way to cash in on spreading a virus.
Ransomware and data-stealing Trojans are much more common, as are bots that let the bot-herder rent out your computer for nefarious purposes. Modern antivirus utilities handle Trojans, rootkits, spyware, adware, ransomware, and more. PCMag has reviewed more than 40 different commercial antivirus utilities, and that's not even counting the many. Out of that extensive field we've named five Editors' Choice products. Several other commercial antivirus utilities proved effective enough to earn an excellent four-star rating.
We eliminated two special-purpose products that aren't really like the rest: The Kure and VoodooSoft VoodooShield. That leaves the ten excellent products you see above. If, one of these products should do the job. All of them are traditional, full-scale, antivirus tools, with the ability to scan files for malware on access, on demand, or on schedule.
These commercial products offer protection beyond the antivirus built into Windows 10; the best free antivirus utilities also offer more. However, is looking a bit better lately, with some very good scores from independent testing labs. In our hands-on tests, it showed a marked improvement since our previous review, enough to finally bring it up to three stars. Listen to the Labs We take the results reported by independent antivirus testing labs very seriously. The simple fact that a particular vendor's product shows up in the results is a vote of confidence, of sorts.
It means the lab considered the product significant, and the vendor felt the cost of testing was worthwhile. Of course, getting good scores in the tests is also important. We follow four labs that regularly release detailed reports:,. We also note whether vendors have contracted with ICSA Labs and West Coast labs for certification. We've devised a system for aggregating their results to yield a rating from 0 to 10.
We Test Malware, Spyware, and Adware Defenses. We also subject every product to our own hands-on test of malware protection, in part to get a feeling for how the product works. Depending on how thoroughly the product prevents malware installation, it can earn up to 10 points for malware protection. Our malware protection test necessarily uses the same set of samples for months.
To check a product's handling of brand-new malware, we test each product using 100 extremely new malware-hosting URLs supplied by, noting what percentage of them it blocked. Products get equal credit for preventing all access to the malicious URL and for wiping out the malware during download.
Some products earn absolutely 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. Multilayered Malware Protection Antivirus products distinguish themselves by going beyond the basics of on-demand scanning and real-time. 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 with fraudulent (phishing) pages. 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 products can verify that all necessary patches are present, and even apply any that are missing. Spyware comes in many forms, from hidden programs that log your every keystroke to Trojans that masquerade as valid programs while mining your personal data. Any antivirus should handle spyware, along with all other types of malware, but some include specialized components devoted to. You expect an antivirus to identify and eliminate bad programs, and to leave good programs alone.
What about unknowns, programs it can't identify as good or bad? Behavior-based detection can, in theory, protect you against malware that's 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. Whitelisting is another approach to the problem of unknown programs.
A whitelist-based 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. Firewalls, Ransomware Protection, and More Firewalls and spam filtering aren't common antivirus features, but some of our top products include them as bonus features. In fact, some of these antivirus products are more feature-packed than certain products sold as security suites. 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 keyboard to foil keyloggers, cross-platform protection, and more. You'll even find products that enhance their automatic malware protection with the expertise of human security technicians.
And of course we've already mentioned sandboxing, vulnerability scanning, and application whitelisting. We're seeing more and more antivirus products adding modules specifically designed for. 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: 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 that your data could be compromised in transit. Sticking to HTTPS websites when possible can help, but for full protection of your data in transit you should install a virtual private network,.
This component is important enough that we're starting to see it as a bonus feature in some antivirus tools. What's the Best Malware Protection? Which antivirus should you choose? You have a wealth of options. Kaspersky Anti-Virus earned perfect scores in all the latest independent lab tests, and Bitdefender Antivirus Plus came very close. A single subscription for McAfee AntiVirus Plus lets you install protection on all of your Windows, Android, Mac OS, and iOS devices. And its unusual behavior-based detection technology means Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is the tiniest antivirus around.
We've named these four Editors' Choice for commercial antivirus, but they're not the only products worth consideration. Read the reviews of our top-rated products, and then make your own decision. Note that we have reviewed many more antivirus utilities than we could include in the chart of top products. If your favorite software isn't listed there, chances are we did review it.
The blurbs below include every product that managed 3.5 stars or better. All the utilities listed in this feature are Windows antivirus apps. If you're a macOS user, don't despair, however; PCMag has a separate roundup dedicated solely to the. Editors' Note: We are aware of the allegations of Kaspersky Labs' inappropriate ties to the Russian government. Until we see some actual proof of these allegations, we will, and continue to recommend Kaspersky's security products as long as their performance continues to merit our endorsement. Pros: Outstanding scores in independent lab tests and our web protection tests.
Multi-layered ransomware protection. Password manager. Banking protection. Offers a virtual private network, or VPN. Many security-centered bonus features.
Cons: Unlimited VPN access requires separate subscription. With antivirus disabled, ransomware-specific features missed one uncommon sample. Bottom Line: With outstanding antivirus test results and a collection of features that puts some security suites to shame, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is a top choice.
Pros: Perfect score in our malware protection test. Very good antiphishing score. Ransomware protection. Light on system resources. Fast scan, tiny size. Advanced features. Cons: Limited lab test results due to unusual detection techniques.
Missed one unique hand-modified ransomware sample in testing. Bottom Line: Tiny, speedy Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus keeps a light touch on your system's resources. It aces our hands-on malware protection test, and can even roll back ransomware activity.
Pros: Protection for every Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS device in your household. Good scores in hands-on tests. Perfect score in antiphishing test. Includes new ransomware protection and PC Boost, plus many bonus features. Cons: Ransom Guard missed one hand-modified ransomware sample.
PC Boost web speedup works only in Chrome. Mac edition less feature-rich than Windows or Android. Still fewer features for iOS. Bottom Line: A single subscription for McAfee AntiVirus Plus lets you protect every Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS device in your household. It's quite a deal, and the current edition adds some new and useful features. Pros: Excellent scores in our hands-on tests.
Good scores from independent labs. Wi-Fi inspector. Password manager. Numerous useful, security-related bonus features.
Pro-only Sandbox and Real Site features. Cons: Password manager features limited. Some bonus features require separate purchase.
Pro-only features don't merit the price. Bottom Line: Avast Pro Antivirus 2017 offers the same wealth of features as its free edition, and not a lot more. It's an excellent product, but for most people the free version will suffice. Pros: Advanced firewall. Antivirus licensed from Kaspersky.
Unique and effective phishing protection. Includes useful bonus tools. Cons: Sparse results from independent labs.
Advanced features too advanced for average user. At max sensitivity, OSFirewall flagged both good and bad programs.
Phishing protection only in Chrome. Bottom Line: With the powerful ZoneAlarm firewall, antivirus licensed from Kaspersky, and a unique new approach to phishing protection, Check Point ZoneAlarm PRO Antivirus + Firewall 2017 is worth a look. Pros: Excellent antiphishing score. Very good malicious URL blocking score. Protects against ransomware, keyloggers, and exploits. Remote management for up to 10 PCs or Macs.
Cons: Lab test results not current. Advanced features require uncommon tech expertise. Limited parental control and webcam protection. Bottom Line: The new Sophos Home Premium security suite brings consumers powerful protection technology forged in the company's Enterprise-level products, including ransomware protection, keylogger blocking, exploit mitigation, and more. Pros: Excellent scores in our malware and exploit protection tests, and our malicious URL blocking test.
Good scores from independent antivirus labs. Includes spam filter, password manager, and other bonus features. Cons: Poor antiphishing score.
First full scan unusually slow. Limited tech support.
No Virus Protection Promise. Bottom Line: Symantec Norton AntiVirus Basic gets good scores from the independent labs and very good scores in most of our hands-on tests. However, it tanked our antiphishing test this time around, it's expensive, and it lacks full tech support. Pros: Prevents non-whitelisted programs from launching when computer is at risk. New machine-learning tool flags malware.
Checks blocked files against 57 antivirus scanners. Free edition for consumers. Cons: Could possibly whitelist malware running prior to installation. Flagged some legitimate programs as suspicious, some as malicious.
Bottom Line: VoodooShield takes a whitelist approach to antivirus protection, but without getting in the user's way. A new machine-learning component brings it closer to the abilities of a standalone antivirus.
Pros: Very good independent lab scores. Excellent score in our malware protection test. Behavioral detection successfully blocked ransomware. Surfing protection is browser-independent. Cons: Dismal score in our phishing protection test. Few scores from independent labs.
Behavioral detection failed against ransomware launched at startup. Bottom Line: Emsisoft Anti-Malware effectively handles the basic tasks of malware protection, including ransomware. Its few lab test results are good, as are its scores on our in-house malware protection tests, though it tanked on our antiphishing test. Pros: Good score in our hands-on malware-blocking test. Speedy full scan. Behavior-based DeepGuard detects brand-new malware. Advanced network protection.
Streamlined, simple interface. Cons: Failed to block disk-encrypting ransomware and ransomware launched at startup. No antiphishing URL blocking. Lab test scores good, not great. Bottom Line: F-Secure Anti-Virus's fast full scan and DeepGuard behavior-based detection system make it a powerful malware fighter, but it failed some of our ransomware protection tests.
Pros: Excellent score in our malware-blocking test. Good results from independent testing labs. Effective behavior-based detection. Protects against banking Trojans, keyloggers, ransomware, and exploits. Cons: So-so score in our malicious URL blocking test. Poor antiphishing.
Very slow full scan. Bottom Line: G Data Antivirus 2017 gets decent marks from the independent testing labs, and it includes components designed to fight specific malware types, including ransomware. However, in our own tests its scores ranged from excellent to poor.
Rubenking The Best Mac Antivirus Protection for 2019 Despite what you may have heard, your Apple computer is not immune to malware. We test the top contenders to identify those offering the best Mac antivirus protection.
Even Macs Need Antivirus Protection It never fails. If you post on a help forum about some computer problem you're having, some genius is sure to contribute, 'Get a Mac!' Yeah, it's not much help, but there is a nugget of value at the core of that advice. Devices running Windows (and Android) are vastly more likely to get hit with a malware infestation than Macs, simply because the macOS operating system is better at maintaining security. But less likely doesn't mean impossible; Macs do get hit with ransomware, Trojans, and other types of malware.
Smart Mac users don't rely strictly on the OS. They install a macOS-centric antivirus utility.
We've put a collection of such tools under serious scrutiny, to help you choose the one that's best for your macOS devices. As with, the most common price is just under $40 per year for a single license. ProtectWorks is unusual in that a single $29.95 payment lets you protect all the Macs in your household, with no subscription needed. McAfee goes beyond that, with a $59.99 per year subscription that protects all your Macs, PCs, Android, and iOS devices. With Sophos Home Premium, $50 per year lets you insall and remotely manage protection on 10 Macs or PCs. At the high end, you pay $99.99 per year for a three-license subscription to Intego Mac Internet Security X9.
You may have heard that the coming advances the platform's privacy and security. Safari on Mojave automatically blocks ads and social media trackers. The built-in password manager does more than ever. And when AppleScript apps try to access internal macOS features, Mojave makes them wait until you give permission. But nothing we've seen suggests that upgrading to Mojave will obviate the need for an antivirus utility.
Free Mac Antivirus Protection There's another angle to the variation in Mac antivirus pricing. How about paying nothing at all?, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac, and Sophos Home Free (for Mac) are totally free for personal use, although Sophos technically limits you to three devices, macOS or Windows. AVG also offers free antivirus for Mac, but until its phishing protection improves we can't recommend it. The best commercial products offer more protection but if you can't afford the best, at least install a free antivirus. Offers everything found in the free edition, plus ransomware protection and Wi-Fi intruder detection. We don't consider the added features worth the product's $59.99 per year subscription price. It merits three stars, but not a spot in the chart.
Malware Protection Lab Certifications When you go to select a new washer, refrigerator, or other appliance, chances are good you research it first. User reviews can be helpful, as long as you discard the very best and very worst of them. But actual test results performed by an independent lab give you more reliable information. Two large labs include antivirus products in their testing, and all but four of the products in this roundup received certification from at least one of them. Malwarebytes declines to be tested, on the basis that its unusual detection mechanism isn't compatible with current testing methods.
And the labs didn't choose to include ClamXAV, McAfee, or ProtectWorks. The researchers at evaluate Mac antivirus products on three criteria: protection, performance, and usability. A product can earn up to six points for each. Protection against malware protection is essential, of course, as is a low impact on performance.
A high usability score reflects a small number of false positives, legitimate programs and websites identified as dangerous. Several products achieved a perfect 18 points, all six points for all three criteria. F-Secure Safe took the lowest score in the most recent test. You won't find a Mac-specific review of this product, as it's a cross-platform suite that protects Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. In the macOS malware test by, almost every charted product scored at least 99 percent, and a couple managed a perfect 100 percent.
Webroot stumbled just a bit, with 96.9 percent protection. This lab, too, included a test using malware aimed at Windows. Yes, these samples can't affect a computer running macOS, but they could conceivably escape to Windows machines on the network. Scores in the Windows malware test ranged from 35 percent to 100 percent, which is quite a span. Results in these tests have a much smaller point spread than in tests of. It's good that most products in the chart received at least one certification for Mac protection, and even better that some received two certifications.
Malwarebytes earned a three-star good rating, but because of its unusual detection and remediation mechanisms, it's not suited to lab testing, and hence has no lab certifications. The chart also doesn't include free products such as Sophos and Avira, but you can find all of these products in the blurbs at the bottom of this roundup. Hands-On Phishing Protection Testing When we test on Windows, we use live malware inside an isolated virtual machine.
We've coded a number of analysis tools over the years to help with this testing. Little of that testing regimen carries over to the Mac. Phishing, however, isn't platform-specific, and neither is our antiphishing test. Phishing websites imitate secure sites, everything from banks and finance sites to gaming and dating sites. If you enter your credentials at the fake login page, you've given the phisher access to your account.
And it doesn't matter if you are browsing on a PC, a Mac, or an internet-aware sewing machine. Over half of the products in this story include protection against malicious and fraudulent sites. With ClamXAV, Intego, and ProtectWorks, this just isn't an included feature. The venerable SiteAdvisor component of McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac) failed when tested previously. More recently, it went from flop to phenom, with an amazing 100 percent protection.
The wily malefactors who create phishing sites are in the business of deception, and they constantly change and update their techniques, hoping to evade detection. If one fraudulent site gets blacklisted or shut down by the authorities, they simply pop up with a new one. That being the case, we try to use the very newest phishing URLs for testing, scraping them from phishing-focused websites. We launch each URL simultaneously in four browsers. One is Safari on the Mac, protected by the Mac antivirus that's under test. The other three use the protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Discarding any that don't fit the phishing profile, and any that don't load correctly in all four browsers, we report the product's success as the average of the difference between its detection rate and that of the other four test systems.
Most of the products in this roundup beat the combined average of the three browsers. Bitdefender in particular scored hugely higher; perhaps the browsers were having a bad day. It's worth noting that, while phishing is platform-independent, phishing defense may not be. For example, Norton on Windows scored siginficantly better than Norton for the Mac. Tested at the same time, McAfee on Windows and on macOS both scored 100 percent. Ransomware Protection The scourge of ransomware is on the rise. While ransomware attacks are more common on Windows devices, Macs have suffered as well.
Of course, any antivirus utility should handle ransomware just as it handles spyware, Trojans, viruses, and other malware types. But since the consequences of missing a ransomware attack are so great, some security products add components with the sole purpose of preventing ransomware attacks. We've observed a wide variety of techniques on Windows. These include blocking unauthorized access to user documents, detecting ransomware based on its activity, and recovering encrypted files from backup. Of the products listed here, Bitdefender and Trend Micro offer a ransomware component that blocks unauthorized modification of protected documents. As with Bitdefender's Windows edition, the Safe Files feature prevents all unauthorized access to your documents.
On a Mac, it also protects your Time Machine backups. Trend Micro offers multiple layers of Windows ransomware protection. Folder Shield, which, like Safe Files, prevents unauthorized document access, is the only layer that made its way to the macOS edition.
Sophos Home Premium includes the same CryptoGuard behavior-based ransomware protection found in its Windows equivalent. Our Windows test sytsems are virtual machines, so we feel free to release real-world ransomware for testing. We just roll back the virtual machine to a clean snapshot after testing. We don't have the option to do that on the physical Mac testbed, so we just have to figure that since it worked on Windows, it probably works on macOS.
Spyware Protection Any kind of malware problem is unpleasant, but spyware may be the most unnerving. Imagine some creeper secretly peeking at you through your Mac's webcam! Other types of spying include logging keystrokes to capture your passwords, sending Trojans to steal your personal data, and watching your online activities to build a profile. As with ransomware protection, we've observed more features specifically devoted to on Windows-based security products than on the Mac, but a few products in this collection do pay special attention to spyware. Under Windows, Kaspersky's Safe Money feature opens sensitive sites in a secure browser that's hardened against outside interference. The Safe Money feature on the Mac doesn't do that, but it does check URLs to make sure you're on a legitimate secure site.
Kaspersky offers an onscreen keyboard, so you can enter passwords with no chance of capture by a keylogger. Its webcam protection isn't as configurable as it is on Windows, but you can use it to disable your Mac's webcam whenever you're not using it. It even includes the ability to block advertisers and others from tracking your online activities. If spyware is your bugaboo, you'll like Kaspersky. Sophos Home Premium offers protection for the webcam and microphone that's more substantial than Kaspersky's. You get a notification any time an untrusted program attempts to access either; you can allow access or stop the program.
There's also an option to whitelist a program, so you don't get a popup every time you use your off-brand video chat tool. Bonus Features. Many antivirus tools on Windows pack in a ton of bonus features, packing in everything from tune-up utilities to. That behavior seems less common on the macOS side. Even so, some vendors don't have a standalone Mac antivirus, opting instead to offer a full as the baseline level of protection, and a few others include suite-like bonus features in the basic antivirus.
A typical personal firewall component blocks attacks coming in from the internet and also manages network permissions for programs installed on your Mac. Intego, McAfee, and Norton each include a firewall component, while Kaspersky's Network Protection comes close. Parental control is another common suite component.
With Sophos (free or premium) and Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, a content filter can block access to websites matching unwanted categories. Kaspersky goes beyond that, with content filtering, internet time scheduling, private data protection, and even social media contact control. Protect Your Mac Most of the products covered in this roundup earned certification from at least one independent testing lab; some managed two certifications. There really are no bad choices here, as far as basic antivirus protection goes. Even so, a couple of products stood out.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac not only achieved certification from both labs, it earned the maximum score in every test, and took the top antiphishing score. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac also earned high scores. It offers a full suite of Mac security tools, at the same price competitors charge for basic antivirus protection. These two are our Editors' Choice winners for Mac antivirus protection. Look over the reviews, pick the product that suits you best, and get your Mac protected. Once you've done that, you should also consider installing a. While an antivirus protects you, your devices, and your data locally, a VPN extends that protection to your online activities, protecting both your security and your privacy.
Pros: Protects files and backups from ransomware. Top ratings from two independent testing labs.
Excellent score in our antiphishing test. No-hassle Autopilot mode. TrafficLight browser extension marks dangerous links in search results. Cons: TrafficLight currently doesn't work under the specific Safari/Google combination.
Bottom Line: Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac gets top marks from the independent labs and in our own hands-on testing. With its handy Autopilot mode, you can set it, forget it, and have confidence that your Apple computer is protected against malware. Pros: Excellent scores from two independent testing labs. Full parental control system.
Network protection. Decent score in our antiphishing test. Privacy protection.
Useful bonus tools. Cons: Parental content filter foiled by secure anonymizing proxy. Content filter missed raunchy sites blocked by Windows edition.
Bottom Line: Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac excels in independent lab tests, and it goes far beyond mere antivirus, offering protection against network attacks, parental control, privacy protection, and many other useful features. Pros: Certified by one independent antivirus lab. Webcam protection. Very good phishing protection. Ransomware protection.
Remote management. Simple parental control.
Cons: Parental content filter foiled by secure anonymizing proxy. Lacks exploit protection, malware deep-clean, download reputation check, keylogger protection, and other advanced features found in the Windows edition. Bottom Line: Sophos Home Premium offers Mac antivirus protection at a very reasonable price, but the absence of many advanced features found in the Windows edition is disappointing. Pros: Certified by one independent testing lab. Speedy full scan. Excellent phishing protection for Chrome and Firefox.
Useful bonus features. Ransomware protection. Wi-Fi intruder detection. Cons: Doesn't add much to free edition's features. Poor phishing protection for Safari. Password manager includes only basic features. Bottom Line: Avast Security Pro (for Mac) adds ransomware protection and Wi-Fi intruder detection to the features found in Avast's free antivirus, but these additions don't merit its high price.