tech: Best Antivirus software paid and free

Every Windows PC needs to be running one of the best antivirus programs, even if that program happens to be free.

The Microsoft Defender antivirus software built into Windows 10 is very good, but while it certainly holds its own against other free rivals, it still can't quite match the features or protection of the best-paid antivirus offerings.

Paid antivirus suites offer you a plethora of features that often go far beyond basic malware protection.

You can get dedicated defenses against ransomware and webcam hijacking, extra functions such as file shredding or system optimization, and even features that compete with stand-alone services like password managers, cloud-backup solutions or identity-theft protection.

Antivirus makers normally offer multiple paid Windows products with identical malware protection but different numbers of extra features that get added as the retail price goes up.

For example, there's the basic Kaspersky Anti-Virus, the midrange Kaspersky Internet Security and the top-line Kaspersky Total Security. The different feature sets are aimed at different customers, and we explain further in our section about antivirus pricing and features at the end of this buying guide.

What is the best antivirus software?

Our top pick overall for best antivirus product is Kaspersky Total Security, which gives you excellent malware protection, a full complement of extra features (including a hardened web browser, webcam protection, and file encryption) and an easy-to-use interface.

Right behind that are Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, an entry-level paid program that is perhaps the best bargain in antivirus software, and Norton 360 Deluxe, which offers excellent protection with unlimited VPN service and a ton of extra features, including the option to add LifeLock identity protection.

Any one of these three would serve you well, but the ideal choice would depend on what best fits your circumstances. For more, see our section on how to choose the best antivirus software below or our stand-alone antivirus buying guide.

Another good choice might be Trend Micro Maximum Security. Its malware-detection engine is good at blocking threats but throws up a fair number of false positives, and it lacks some of the extra features offered by comparatively priced products.

McAfee and ESET are both big names in the antivirus business, but they don't do quite as well as the previous brands in lab tests measuring malware-detection efficiency.

For the best free antivirus software, we liked Kaspersky Free Antivirus, which edged out Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition for the top spot.

Both offered excellent protection against malware without slowing down your system, but Kaspersky let you schedule scans and had a quick-scan option. It's been replaced in Kaspersky's lineup by the even better Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, for which our review will appear soon.

Our free rankings immediately follow our paid rankings below.

The best antivirus software you can buy today

1. Kaspersky Total Security

The best antivirus software overall.

Kaspersky's Windows products have excellent malware-detection scores and a moderate system-performance impact, which are the two most important criteria in our rankings.

The entry-level program, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, has dedicated ransomware protection, a virtual keyboard and a convenient online account portal. But at this level, it's beaten by Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, which has even more features.

Kaspersky Internet Security is our top choice among the midrange packages. It has decent parental controls, 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. It also includes software for macOS, Android and iOS.

The premium antivirus suite, Kaspersky Total Security, adds backup software, file encryption, a file shredder and an unlimited password manager. We think it's the best antivirus software you can buy.

2. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus

Strong protection on the cheap.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is our top choice among entry-level antivirus products. It has very good, if not perfect, malware-detection scores and a very light system-performance impact during scans.

It also offers the most value, with an unlimited password manager, a secure browser, a Wi-Fi network scanner, a file shredder, protection against encrypting ransomware and Bitdefender's new web-privacy software. It can stop scans if you're playing a computer game.

The midrange Bitdefender Internet Security adds parental controls, file encryption, 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.

A new product, Bitdefender Premium Security, is basically Total Security with unlimited VPN usage and priority tech support. (The other programs limit you to 200MB of Bitdefender VPN usage per day.) But the best deal is the Bitdefender Family Pack, which puts Total Security on up to 15 devices for (a frequently discounted) $120 per year.

3. Norton 360 Deluxe

Almost everything you could ever need.

All eight of Norton's antivirus products offer excellent malware protection, and the once-heavy system-performance load is much lighter. The number of extra features each program has varies according to price, but the sweet spot in the lineup is Norton 360 Deluxe.

It includes a password manager, unlimited VPN service, dark-web personal-data monitoring, parental controls and up to 50GB of online storage space. Two retail-only 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.

If you want full-on identity protection, Norton offers three bundles with varying degrees of LifeLock service and even more online storage space. Their annual 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.

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. Yet every other digital protection service you could possibly ask for is included with at least some of its bundles.

4. Trend Micro Maximum Security

Heavy scans yield many false positives.

Trend Micro offers very good protection, but its malware-detection engine creates a heavy system load during scans and returns a fair number of false-positive results. The brand's entry-level product, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, is pretty basic in terms of extra tools though it does come with a secure web browser.

Parental controls, a system optimizer and a file shredder are bundled into the mid-range Trend Micro Internet Security. The top-end Trend Micro Maximum Security adds a password manager, a secure browser and file encryption.

However, none of Trend Micro's programs include a two-way firewall or webcam protection, which are standard with other brands' midrange offerings. Nor does the premium product have the cloud storage, backup software or VPN service that some of the best antivirus brands like to add as enticements to their flagship packages.

5. McAfee Internet Security

Good but not perfect

McAfee's malware detection has improved greatly in the past couple of years, but it's still not top-of-the-line. Despite that, the entry-level McAfee AntiVirus Plus is a bargain: $60 per year buys software for up to 10 (in fact, unlimited) devices, whether they run Windows, OS X, iOS or Android, and the software comes with a file shredder and a two-way firewall.

McAfee Internet Security adds one of the best password managers in the business, but to get parental controls, you'll have to spring for the 10-device license of McAfee Total Protection or its sibling McAfee LiveSafe, which comes pre-installed on many new PCs.

The multi-device licenses of those two security suites also come with an identity-protection service, but none of the McAfee products have a secure browser or webcam protection, which you often get with the best antivirus programs.

At the top is McAfee Total Protection + VPN, which adds unlimited VPN service. Hardcore PC gamers may consider McAfee Gamer Security, which for $60 per year offers low-overhead protection for a single rig.

The best free antivirus software

The best paid antivirus suites can do all sorts of things: shield your children from online unpleasantness, protect your personal details from identity thieves, optimize your system performance, manage your passwords and mobile devices, back up your files to the cloud and monitor your computer's firewall.

But many PC users don't want, or can't afford, to pay for all those extra features. They just want to have their computers protected from malware and other threats without having to pay for it.

Free antivirus protection used to be a trade-off. You'd either have to tolerate a lot of ads or allow your personal data to be collected to get malware defenses that nonetheless fell short of the best paid programs.

That's changed as of the past few years. Two of the best paid antivirus makers, Bitdefender and Kaspersky, now offer free programs. Avast and AVG merged, and the resulting malware-detection engine was better than either of its predecessors. And the rapid improvement of Microsoft Windows Defender has been astonishing.

The upshot is that it's now possible to get free malware protection that's just as good as anything you can pay for. So here are what we think the best free antivirus programs based on their malware protection, system impact, ease of use and useful extra features.

What are the best free antivirus programs?

Kaspersky Free Antivirus barely edged out Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition for the top spot among best free antivirus programs.

Both offer excellent protection against malware without slowing down your system, but Kaspersky lets you schedule scans and has a quick-scan option. (It's being replaced in the Kaspersky lineup by the even more lightweight Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, for which we'll have a review up soon.)

Bitdefender is still the best "set it and forget it" free antivirus option. It takes care of itself and doesn’t need user intervention. If you need to put antivirus software on your grandparents' PC, this is the perfect solution.

If you want features such as a password manager or a hardened web browser, then Avast Free Antivirus might be for you. But its malware protection isn't as good as the top two and its performance impact is heavier.

The real sleeper here is Microsoft Defender, aka Windows Defender, which is built into Windows 8.1 and 10. It used to be a joke but has become one of the best antivirus programs out there.

Defender is still fairly short on features compared to paid antivirus programs, or even a few free ones, but its malware-detection rates beat even some paid brands. Its only Achilles' heel is its high number of false-positive malware-detection results.

We have to mention one thing that's not even an antivirus program, but which we recommend anyway: Malwarebytes Free.

While antivirus programs try to stop your machine from becoming infected by malware, Malwarebytes is the cleanup crew, brushing out any adware or potentially unwanted programs. It works well alongside any antivirus program.

1. Kaspersky Free Antivirus

Lean and mean

That's too bad, because Kaspersky's free antivirus product is one of the best we've ever tested. It's got a no-nonsense but comprehensible interface, a light system-performance impact, a lot of customization potential and Kaspersky's unbeatable malware protection. It even lets you schedule scans.

If you want dependable free antivirus software that you can tweak a bit, but don't have to worry about too much, then Kaspersky has what you're looking for.

The only reason we're not giving Kaspersky Free Antivirus a 4.5/5 rating is because it offers no extra features. But its even better successor, Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, does, and we're looking forward to publishing our review of that product very soon.

2. Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition

No muss, no fuss

Compared to premium paid antivirus programs that are big, heavy and loaded with options, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition is a mid-'60's sports car, stripped to the essentials but still providing plenty of power.

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition offers nothing but the basics. There's no password manager, no gaming mode, no quick scans and no scan scheduling. You can manage it from the program's System Tray icon, but you don't really need to interact with Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition at all once it's set up.

Yet Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition has the excellent Bitdefender malware-detection engine, which sits just below Kaspersky and Norton in the lab-test rankings.

It's the best free antivirus software if you want a set-it-and-forget-it security solution. It's also perfect if you need to protect the computer of an elderly relative but don't have time to manage antivirus software from afar.

3. Avira Free Antivirus

Not what it once was

Avira Free Antivirus was the best free antivirus option until just a few years ago. That was before Bitdefender and Kaspersky jumped into the ring with their own free-antivirus offerings and Avast, AVG and Microsoft Defender raised their malware-detection game.

Now Avira's malware protection is in the middle of the free-antivirus pack. The program's numerous extra features, including a password manager, a system optimizer and Avira's own Phantom VPN service, are mostly just teases for paid subscriptions. Avira Free Antivirus' system-performance impact is also remarkably heavy.

We do like that Avira Free Antivirus still has a wide range of customization options, and we appreciate its bright, unflashy interface. But Avira Free Antivirus has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to remain a contender.

4. AVG AntiVirus Free

Not enough oomph

AVG shares a decent, if unspectacular, malware-detection engine with its corporate sibling Avast while having a much lighter system-performance impact.

But AVG AntiVirus Free also has far fewer useful extra features than Avast Free Antivirus. While the latter program is almost a free security suite with lots of bells and whistles, AVG AntiVirus Free is the quiet, neglected child that gets the hand-me-downs.

The good news is that AVG's wide range of customization options and its file shredder and system optimizer are still available, and its interface is open and easy to use. The bad news is that like Avast Free Antivirus, AVG AntiVirus Free constantly bugs you to upgrade to paid antivirus software.

Worst of all, given its middling malware detection and dearth of extra features, there's no convincing reason to choose AVG AntiVirus Free over the built-in Microsoft Defender.

5. Avast Free Antivirus

Nearly a free suite

Avast Free Antivirus has the best assortment of extra goodies of any free antivirus program, including a password manager, a hardened browser, a gaming mode and a Wi-Fi network scanner.

The program is also very customizable, letting you tweak its appearance and functions to suit your style. It even offers limited access to Avast's VPN service.

However, Avast Free Antivirus caused a pretty heavy system load in our testing and its scans took a long time. It also kept nagging us to upgrade to Avast's paid antivirus programs, and played bait-and-switch with features that looked like they were free but weren't.

Most significant of all, the malware protection in Avast Free Antivirus is a peg down from Kaspersky's or Bitdefender's, whose free programs bothered us less about paid upgrades and had lighter system loads.

6.Microsoft Windows Defender

Finally good enough

There's also a surprising number of extra features built into Windows 10 itself, including parental controls, a gaming mode and protections for all browsers, that make up for Microsoft Defender's no-frills approach. You still won't get a password manager or a VPN, but you also won't be bothered by pop-ups trying to upsell you to paid antivirus software.

We couldn't have said this a couple of years ago, but today, we can comfortably recommend using Windows Defender as your primary antivirus solution.

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Best Antivirus software paid and free