What’s the best all-around security software for keeping your PC safe? We’ve tested, reviewed, and rated nearly 40 apps to help you choose the best security suite for protecting your devices and your data.
Every PC needs basic antivirus protection. Without that, you risk malicious coders stealing your personal data, taking over your online accounts, or even encrypting your important files and holding them for ransom. But antivirus isn’t the only kind of protection available for your personal data and privacy. A firewall fends off malicious attacks across the network and keeps you in control of programs that want to phone home. Running your internet traffic through a VPN both keeps your communications private and hides your IP address. Depending on your situation, you might need a spam filter, or a parental control system. You could just throw a disparate assortment of utilities into the mix and hope they get along. But you’ll save time, aggravation, and money by selecting a security suite that integrates all the protective elements you want. Some security companies just add the most essential components to create a suite, while others rope in a huge variety of security elements. Just which of these security juggernauts should you choose? We’ve reviewed nearly 40 different suites and pulled together the best, from simple entry-level suites to cross-platform multi-device lollapaloozas. This article briefly mentions the many tests we use to evaluate security suites and determine which are the best. If you want more details on the torture tests we perform on every product we review, please read the full explanation of how we test security software. Basic and Advanced Security Suites Most security companies offer at least three levels of security products, a standalone antivirus utility, an entry-level security suite, and an advanced suite with additional features. Most entry-level suites include antivirus, firewall, antispam, and parental control. The advanced “mega-suite” typically adds a backup component and some form of system tune-up utility, and some also add password management, a VPN, or other security extras. When a new product line comes out, we start by reviewing the antivirus. In our review of the entry-level suite, we summarize results from the antivirus review and dig deeper into the suite-specific features. And for a mega-suite review, we focus on the advanced features, referring to the entry-level suite review for features shared by both. Your choice of a basic or advanced security suite depends entirely on what features matter to you, and what you’re willing to pay for them. The suites we’ve rounded up here aim to protect consumers. You can use any of them in a small business, but as your company grows you may need to switch to a SaaS endpoint protection system. This type of service lets an administrator monitor and manage security for all the company’s computers. Windows Defender? Maybe Over the years, the Windows Defender program built into Windows 10 has evolved into Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center. That imposing name reflects the fact that in addition to antivirus protection it manages Windows Firewall and other Windows security features. It doesn’t truly qualify as a suite; it’s just an antivirus that manages other Windows components. Independent antivirus test scores for Windows Defender have literally come in below zero in the past, but its scores have been steadily improving. You can still get better overall protection from the best third-party free antivirus utilities, but Windows Defender is looking better all the time. Even so, it can’t replace a full-scale security suite. Fighting Malware, Adware, and Spyware Malware protection is the heart of a security suite; without an antivirus component, there’s no suite. Naturally you want a suite whose antivirus is effective. When evaluating an antivirus, we look for high marks from the independent antivirus testing labs. The fact that the labs consider a product important enough to test is a vote of confidence. The very best antivirus products get high ratings from many labs. We also perform our own hands-on testing. For one test we use a relatively static set of malware samples that’s replaced once per year. We note how the antivirus reacts when we try to launch those samples and score it on how well it protects the test system. For another, we try to download very new malicious files from URLs no more than a few days old. Lab test results, our own test results, and other aspects like ease of use go into our antivirus rating.
