What is the best antivirus software for Windows?

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Apr 20, 2021

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18 Options Considered

Best antivirus software for Windows	Price	Last Updated
88 Windows Defender	-	Mar 9, 2021
-- Malwarebytes	-	Aug 24, 2020
73 Bitdefender Antivirus	9.99 - 129,99	Dec 30, 2020
-- Emsisoft	-	Mar 11, 2021
-- ESET Internet Security	Paid	Apr 10, 2021

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score 39 · Answer 1

Windows Defender

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

It doesn't even get anything

PositiveTenjin's Experience

Works perfectly and seamlessly, without hogging resources or installing anything additional. See More

Top Pro

No Ads

Top Con

Harder to set exceptions and restore for false positives

Defender and its options isn't as accessible as other av programs. See More

Eric Waters's Experience

I honestly see no reason to install anything else. Works great, comes with Windows, barely noticeable system resource usage even during heavy scans. It just works, right out of the box, with no additional configuration. See More

Top Pro

Perfect ratings in all 3 categories for more than 10 months in a row.

As of March 2021, Defender has been scoring perfect 6 in AV-Test ratings in all 3 categories for almost a year. The last time it scored a non-perfect score was in April 2020 which was a long time ago. See More

TalentedDushara's Experience

nothing, shit See More

Top Pro

Part of Windows

Ali Fazeli's Experience

awsome See More

ResourcefulHermus's Experience

Poor performance in copying files and extremely limited and basic protection. Would never use this to secure anything that is even slightly important to me. See More

See All

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score 12 · Answer 2

Malwarebytes

Top Pro

Free for manual scans

Offers a completely free scan and removal version for personal use. See More

Top Con

Misleading

Garbage protection and huge memory usage. See More

Top Pro

Light resource usage

Top Con

Slow custom scan startup time

Top Pro

Antimalware

Antivirus is a specific term referring to well-known and established malware, meaning that you'll still remain vulnerable to new and unique malware if you use an antivirus. Malwarebytes is constantly updated to find newer and rarer malware. See More

Top Con

Need paid version to use as active av

Free version is only on demand scans. See More

Top Pro

Doesn't ignore adware and toolbars

Malwarebytes removes toolbars that get bundled with software and adware that some other products keep. See More

Top Pro

Simple setup

Top Pro

Achieved a perfect score in a test performed by AV-TEST

In 2014 AV-TEST tested 7 different cleaning tools (along with 10 antivirus solutions) Malwarebytes was the only tool that was capable of completely removing and restoring the system. It was concluded by AV-TEST to be the best tool for removing malware from infected computers. See More

See All

score 29 · Answer 3

Bitdefender Antivirus

Top Pro

High protection rate

It has scored 100% in AV-comparatives july 2018's world-protection test. proof Also, it obtained average of 99.8% in feb-june 2018's test which is better than Avira, Avast, AVG, McAfee, microsoft windows defender and many more antivirus products. proof See More

Top Con

Bitdefender VPN bothers on Windows

the bundled VPN client will bother you about wifi on Windows, on Mac it can be easily be disabled See More

rjsm39's Experience

I am using it for 1.2 years now. See More

Top Pro

Vey low false alarms

It's FPs/userindependent FPs are only 2 in feb-june 2018's results. source It got A+ score in world-protection test which include both FPs and protection rate. A+ score was obtained by only Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, Tencent, Vipre, Kaspersky and McAfee. See More

Top Con

Need to turn off notification "Offers" in seetings yourself

TalentedDushara's Experience

its great i have used it for 2 years. See More

Top Pro

Free Version available

The Frees Version is just as acurate as the paid variant, however it's english only and sort of hidden on their website See More

Top Con

UI on Windows needs time to get used to

tedmosby878's Experience

Bitdefender is a good antivirus program. One of the best. https://launchberg.com/top-10-best-free-antivirus-software/ See More

Top Pro

Heap of Privacy options to control on Windows

Anything from camera to microfone access See More

Top Con

MacOS has less options

For Mac some options you might know from Windows version are missing but that's due to the operating system See More

PoisedNut's Experience

sonu See More

Top Pro

Create Antivirus Profiles

Configure profiles depending on which network you are and tell Bitdefender how in should behave in this enviroment See More

Top Con

Meh

The heaviest antivirus in existence, over 400 megabytes when idle, and slows down your computer, altough it has very good protection, its just not worth the cost. See More

DynamicLaima's Experience

simple to use. a little annoying the messages present in last (2018) version. See More

Top Pro

Easy and detailed management of devices

When logging into your account page. You can choose to install Bitedefnder on your current pc or download an installer from this licence for another pc. Furthermore you can: see events from all devices, initiate remote scans, delete devices from account, track devices if pc has tracking enabled See More

Top Pro

Integrated Password Manager - Optional

Can secure your passwords and bank acccount data if you choose to. It's completly optional! See More

Top Pro

Plenty of discounts!

Regulary there are discounts on all versions for private/family use. Up to 56% off is possible there See More

Top Pro

For every use case

whether you want to protect your phone, your pc, pcs of your whole family, or need a hardware firewall or datacenter solution. For everything there's a package to choose from See More

See All

score 11 · Answer 4

Emsisoft

Top Pro

Very good Behavior Blocker

one of the best "BB" protection of the market See More

Top Con

Recent changes drastically lowered detection ratio

Top Pro

Very Good Privacy Policy

No urls are saved and all urls are scanned locally See More

Top Pro

Dual-engine scanner

With bitdefender signatures. See More

Top Pro

Low impact, good peformance

Does not slow down the computer and the impact is minimal. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 5

ESET Internet Security

Top Pro

Low on resources

Top Pro

Low False Positives

Top Pro

Good Detection Ratio

Scored a good score on protection in the last years. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 6

Tencent PC manager

Top Con

Banned from Av-Tests

it detected the test performed by AV-Test and simulated a faster scan. See More

Top Pro

High protection rate

It secured average of 99.5% in Feb-June 2018's real world protection test, whereas it achieved 100% in July 2018's test. Avast, VIPRE, panda, ESET, Windows Defender and AVG are already defeated by it. proof- 1 proof-2 See More

Top Con

Depends upon Bitdefender's engine for local scan

If you notice its UI, you will find that it uses Bitdefender engine for scanning local files. Sounds like Tencent is nothing but just a clone of Bitdefender. See More

Top Pro

Achieved Advanced+ certificate by AV-comparatives

proof Only 8 antivirus products obtained advanced+. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 7

ClamAV

Add Video or Image

score 6 · Answer 8

Kaspersky Free

Top Pro

Top rated in comparisons

NeighborlyMalingee's Experience

I was using Avast (too many ads and popups), then Bitdefender (no popups but then I started getting to many false positives and no options to set). Kaspersky is relatively easy to set options, is top rated in comparisons. Easy to set exclusions. See More

Top Pro

Can set preferences about how to deal with PUP's and other notifications: ask, quarantine, or exclude

Top Pro

Will watch over email and web sites

Top Pro

Not the lightest on resources, but not the worst either

See All

score 5 · Answer 9

Avira

Top Con

Occasional pop-up ad in the taskbar

The ad is nagging the user to purchase Avira See More

Top Pro

Can install more components if you wish

Optional installs include VPN, System Speedup, a password manager, browser extensions, and a hardened browser. In the case that you've downloaded the Free Suite (not recomended), you can uninstall the above mentioned additional downloads with Avira's Connect app or any uninstaller utility software. This flexibility to cherry pick your extra software keeps the bloatware down somewhat. See More

DelightfulShaushka's Experience

Average performance, nonintuitive UI, leaves a LOT of hard to delete residual files after deinstallation. See More

Top Con

Extras like Browser Safety include offers/deals when you're shopping

This is exactly the sort of behavior users want to prevent when using antivirus and similar security tools. See More

Top Pro

High detection rate and fully GDPR compliant

Cokeman's Experience

Does not sell my data as Avast/AVG does and is not Russian... See More

Top Con

A pain to uninstall

Even after uninstalling the program, then using Avira's own "Avira AntiVir Removal tool", residual files will remain on your pc (even inside hidden folders) until you delete them manually (requires knowledge not frequent in your average/beginner user). It is a well-known issue that these files can prevent your Windows 10 from updating. See More

Top Pro

Can install more components if you wish.

Optional installs include VPN, System Speedup, a password manager, browser extensions, and a hardened browser. In the case that you've downloaded the Free Suite (not recomended), you can uninstall the above mentioned additional downloads with Avira's Connect app or any uninstaller utility software. This flexibility to cherry pick your extra software keeps the bloatware down somewhat. See More

theBoeringer18's Experience

Best detection rates and free. See More

Top Pro

Fast, and free version seems powerful

I've used AVG Free in the past, and it seemed to slow my computer more than Avira does. See More

dewydd's Experience

I can't give a full, technical review of this antivirus, I can only tell that my multiple experiences with this were awful. Resource consumption was continuous, unexplicable and ANNOYING. Sometimes a progress bar used to pop up ("Luke Filewalker"), annoying and ridiculous. When trying to unistall to migrate to AVG, the software just REFUSED TO UNINSTALL. It kept reappearing after each reboot after the apparent uninstall. Even deleting files on the FS resulted in the re-generation of them. Frightening and useless. I don't know if they got better with new versions, but I am not interested in knowing it. See More

See All

score 8 · Answer 10

ESET Endpoint Protection

Add Video or Image

score 9 · Answer 11

360 Total Security

Top Con

Qihoo is not a company focused on cybersecurity, but instead on profit

The 360 Total Security creator’s profit comes from selling advertising space on its portal and sharing the profit with independent game developers. The company recently launched a search portal to compete with Baidu. Qihoo has a history of using backdoor in its products: in 2010 Qihoo was accused of including a backdoor in Qihoo 360 (the company it accused published the code obtained by reverse engineering proving this), in 2012 it was accused of using backdoor in its pre-installed apps on smartphones (because of that Huawei canceled the partnership with them) and in 2013 the company was accused of using backdoors in its antivirus to steal data from users and install DLLs on Windows without their consent. To close with a “golden key”, Qihoo shamelessly collects private data from Internet users in 360 Total Security See More

Top Pro

Has multiple scanners

Includes Avira and Bitdefender engines. See More

EnthusiasticKarkinos's Experience

An antivirus all in more with two antivirus engines, updated drivers, security patch installers a whole panoply of tools for a more than accessible price. See More

Top Con

A product from China

China is known for its continuous monitoring of the internet and its censorship. The Chinese government employs 2 million people to control the Internet and recently tried to force foreign technology companies to implement backdoors in their products, allowing them to spy and monitor information that travels or is stored there. In addition, the Chinese government has forced them to provide the encryption key used in their products, that is, the transmission of encrypted information can be intercepted and read as if it were a common insecure connection. This is all necessary because the Chinese government is not concerned with the privacy of its citizens and, it seems, this also applies to people of any nationality. See More

Top Pro

Ransomware decryption tool

InquisitiveBragi's Experience

Sends all your data to china..... See More

Top Con

Banned from AV-Tests

Qihoo was not ruled out by antivirus testing companies for nothing: it was caught cheating when its antivirus used the Bitdefender engine instead of the QVM engine itself (although the public version of this antivirus comes with the Bitdefender engine disabled and QVM enabled, providing much less security than it promised). See More

Top Con

User data compromissed

According to Qihoo Privacy Policy, 360 can take from you: Name Address Email address Business address telephone Date of birth Breed Sex Sexual orientation Social Security number Social media account Contacts Conversation logs Email messages Browser searches History of visited sites Your bank details and passwords Your credit card statement Bank transaction history Purchases historic Your photo See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 12

Panda Free Antivirus

Top Con

No way to recover a qurantined item

Top Pro

Hassle free protection

Runs in the background and silently quarantines viruses without scaring the user. See More

Top Con

Very poor protection score

Protection rate is only 98.7% in independent tests. Whereas almost every antivirus scored more than 99% in same test. source Also, it's FP average is 13 which makes it worse than other antivirus products. See More

Top Pro

Does not annoy users with updates

Cloud antivirus means users no longer have to update their system or see dialogue boxes annoying them. Every year or two it prompts you to install major updates to the application, but that's it. See More

Top Con

Below average performance

While easy to use and never requiring updates, it does slow down the loading of programs. The rate of slow down ranks it below average performance for launching applications. See More

Top Pro

Top rated protection

Top protection marks from AV Test despite being a hassle free solution. It is commonly rated above average for the industry, often getting the top marks. See More

Top Con

Popups asking you to buy [Free version only]

When you start your computer you will get a small ad for a moment asking you to upgrade to the paid version, if you are using the free version. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 13

AVG

Top Con

Insane amounts of cache data

Over time hundreds of GB of cache data can pile up for whatever reason. See More

Top Pro

Pop-ups about "special offers" are not excessively intrusive

dewydd's Experience

I use AVG because I settled on the best compromise between resource usage, annoyng pop-ups, unwanted add-ins and efficiency among free antivirus software. I can't give more techincal advice about See More

Top Pro

Updates are seamless and don't interfere with the PC's performance

See All

score 1 · Answer 14

McAfee

Top Pro

Good tools and utilities

Top Con

Makes devices much slower

Top Pro

Good malware protection

See All

score 4 · Answer 15

avast!

Top Con

Makes your system slower than usual

Even though scans are not being run in background, it will slow your system. See More

Top Pro

Decent anti-virus protection

Top Con

Tries too hard to sell you the paid version

Top Con

Too much bloat

Unless you opt-out during installation, Avast will install a bunch of programs such as a password manager, VPN, browser addons, and even another browser. See More

Top Con

Opt-out installation of Google Chrome

These advertising tactics are simply unacceptable See More

Top Con

Selling potentially identifying user data

Top Con

Forced protection against false positives

This antivirus detects Searx as malicious and removes it without your permission. See More

Top Con

Very high CPU and Memory usage when downloading files

This is a problem with webshield. See More

Top Con

Too noisy

Avast! has sounds turned on by default. It also has a lot of blinky features of questionable use. See More

Top Con

Detection rate isn't too solid

Avast! is not the sort of antivirus product to give you peace of mind. In practice, it does miss some malware every now and then. You'll need backup virus protection, which raises the question why you should get Avast in the first place. See More

Top Con

Expires after a year leaving computer exposed to new viruses

Expires and stops updating after a year after which the user's computer may become infected by new viruses not covered by existing patterns. See More

Top Con

"Smart Screen" feature

When running an unknown application, avast will run it wrapped in a sandbox environment first for scanning, then kill the process and re-run it again. A lot of applications do not like this. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 16

Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection

Top Pro

Uses minimal memory

StudiousGanymede's Experience

No problems as yet, Simple, Just does its job in the background, I've tested it by searching some risky sites and it blocks or warns immediately. See More

score 1 · Answer 17

Webroot

Top Pro

Lightweight resource usage

Top Con

Not trustworthy

Webroot has not been participating in av-test's and av-comparatives' tests for a long time. Would you still install it without knowing it's performance, protection and false alarms ? See More

Top Pro

Non-intrusive

Top Con

Consistently low detection rate

See All

score 8 · Answer 18

Norton

Top Pro

Jack of all trades.

Very good protection and light on system resources (80~ megabytes), compared to kasperskys 180 and bitdefenders 400 megabytes, but can slightly slow down your computer See More

Top Con

Slows down computers

Norton has a notoriously heavy footprint. See More

Top Con

Wrongly blocks too many sites

It has so many false alarms which makes norton worse than any other antivirus products. Although average protection rate is 99.5% but average FP's are 32. source See More

See All

18 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Windows Defender

My Recommendation for Windows Defender

Lightweight

It doesn't even get anything

No Ads

Harder to set exceptions and restore for false positives

Perfect ratings in all 3 categories for more than 10 months in a row.

Part of Windows

My Recommendation for Malwarebytes

My Recommendation for Malwarebytes

Free for manual scans

Misleading

Light resource usage

Slow custom scan startup time

Antimalware

Need paid version to use as active av

Doesn't ignore adware and toolbars

Simple setup

Achieved a perfect score in a test performed by AV-TEST

My Recommendation for Bitdefender Antivirus

My Recommendation for Bitdefender Antivirus

High protection rate

Bitdefender VPN bothers on Windows

Vey low false alarms

Need to turn off notification "Offers" in seetings yourself

Free Version available

UI on Windows needs time to get used to

Heap of Privacy options to control on Windows

MacOS has less options

Create Antivirus Profiles

Meh

Easy and detailed management of devices

Integrated Password Manager - Optional

Plenty of discounts!

For every use case

My Recommendation for Emsisoft

My Recommendation for Emsisoft

Very good Behavior Blocker

Recent changes drastically lowered detection ratio

Very Good Privacy Policy

Dual-engine scanner

Low impact, good peformance

My Recommendation for ESET Internet Security

My Recommendation for ESET Internet Security

Low on resources

Low False Positives

Good Detection Ratio

My Recommendation for Tencent PC manager

My Recommendation for Tencent PC manager

Banned from Av-Tests

High protection rate

Depends upon Bitdefender's engine for local scan

Achieved Advanced+ certificate by AV-comparatives

My Recommendation for ClamAV

My Recommendation for ClamAV

My Recommendation for Kaspersky Free

My Recommendation for Kaspersky Free

Top rated in comparisons

Can set preferences about how to deal with PUP's and other notifications: ask, quarantine, or exclude

Will watch over email and web sites

Not the lightest on resources, but not the worst either

My Recommendation for Avira

My Recommendation for Avira

Occasional pop-up ad in the taskbar

Can install more components if you wish

Extras like Browser Safety include offers/deals when you're shopping

High detection rate and fully GDPR compliant

A pain to uninstall

Can install more components if you wish.

Fast, and free version seems powerful

My Recommendation for ESET Endpoint Protection

My Recommendation for ESET Endpoint Protection

My Recommendation for 360 Total Security

My Recommendation for 360 Total Security

Qihoo is not a company focused on cybersecurity, but instead on profit

Has multiple scanners

A product from China

Ransomware decryption tool

Banned from AV-Tests