There is something called paradox of choice. It happens when you have so many choices to pick from. You just freeze. Sure, having multiple choices is good. But a lot? That will overload you with information and indecisiveness.
Choosing the best antivirus software for you is no different. There are tons in the market. Thank god we have computer magazines and websites that perform tests and reviews antivirus products in the market. They should be able to help us make the right choice.
Only that most of them don’t.
You see, the issue with most computer magazines and IT websites with reviews for antivirus products is that they tend to only test a handful of antivirus software, and only on specific aspects. Those kinds of selection bias prohibits you from making a proper informed decision.
This is the part where we say we are different. We have reviewed every mainstream consumer level antivirus products in the market. We know them like back of our hands. So here we have compiled a brief review of best 3 antivirus, along with a table of top 10 we have reviewed. Oh and you will also learn why we love the top 3 so much.
Before we start our journey, let’s get down to our general findings and approaches we took. Why? Because you only want to read antivirus review backed up by proper test methodologies. Trust.
Our Principle
Here is what we can promise you. Our reviews you will see in this post are done with you in our mind. Yes, you. Or shall we say majority of computer users who want to protect their computers?
Let’s face it. Most computer magazines and websites tend to focus on specific type of threats each antivirus products can identify. While doing that, they have also taken the liberty to ignore the fact that most people who will use antivirus products are not computer security geniuses.
Fact of the matter is that people simply won’t buy different antivirus software and install them to protect from different kind of threats. However, computer magazines tend to ignore that. What most computer users need is a well-rounded antivirus product that can protect them against all kinds of virus and malware threats.
Not only that, there are many other contributing factors for a computer to get infected. Even if an antivirus software is installed, if the software is intended for computer experts who know what to do when prompted with boatloads of questions, then majority of computer users who are novices will be vulnerable to virus infections.
This is our core principle in our reviews: we focus on ranking the antivirus products that are well-rounded, and also really help both nobices and veterans. So we take things like automatic scanning of external drives, performance and such into consideration when we review.
Another thing is selection bias. In order to remain objective and achieve unbiased conclusions, the approach we use to test each and every antivirus products is methodical, pragmatic and practical. We use real-life threats and scenarios. And all our tests are done with one thing in mind: a solution for majority, not just computing experts.
So there will be certain antivirus products in our top 10 table that rank lower, not because they are not good, but because they just didn’t do enough to automatically block the threats or access to viruses. Why? Because those kind of things will expose novice computer users to infections.
How We Test
Before we get onto our top 3 antivirus software, we gotta lay down our test methodology. One thing for sure is that we don’t review based on funtions, but rather on real world scenario.
That scenario would be infecting a computer with viruses. Yes, that’s what we did.
A completely fresh Windows 7 installation on a virtual machine without any extra software but just latest updates was used as test machine. Then we install antivirus product we were testing. After testing each products, we will use new virtual machine for next one.
After installations, we plug in a USB key with three files infected with viruses.
- A test virus developed for testing purposes from European Expert Group for IT Security
- A rogue antivirus software known as “Trojan.Fakealert.AFJ”. In brief, a scareware which will tell users that their computers are infected when in fact the fake antivirus software itself is the infection
- A rogue Google Chrome installer containing a selection of malwares, such as Delta search hijacker, adware like Desk365 and various others. This is the most serious kind of threat for any antivirus software.
We will then release the threats one by one onto the test machine, and see how it plays out.
The Findings
There were 23 mainstream antivirus products we tested, but 10 of them failed to identify all threats we released. Then two more failed to handle the threats adequately. It was a shocking surprise, especially when big name brands were there.
The downfall of most of those antivirus products was our fake Google Chrome installer which contains a bunch of spyware and adware. The malware in it are really difficult to deal with and trust us, there were a lot of them. Those are the kinds that will slow down your computer, infests it with annoying and intrusive popups, steal your data for blackhat advertising purposes and such.
Those kind of malware are not easy to remove, since they are very sneaky. Manual removal is possible but it can drive any sane person nuts. The real shocker is when we found out around 50% of the mainstream antivirus software we tested failed to prevent them!
We mentioned about our disappointment with big name brands. In particular, they were McAfee and Panda. McAfee is just an outdated bloatware now (it needs major revamp) and while Panda is a lot more modern in terms of usability, both of them failed miserably to catch all our threats. And let’s not even get started on performance. This goes to show that big name brands don’t really equal to awesomeness.
Our Top Ten
(maybe you can take out the review and antivirus links and just list the price and name?)
Winner – WebRoot SecureAnywhere Antivirus
Our first impression with WebRoot SecureAnywhere software led us to believe that it definitely will be in every shortlist, and some of us even speculated that it may even take the crown. True enough, we are quite happy to have test results confirming initial impression.
Even after reviewing every mainstream antivirus products, WebRoot SecureAnywhere is still clearly the champion.
WebRoot is a well-known company in this sector for their now-discontinued Spy Sweeper product, which was the choice of tool for most IT experts to remove stubborn adware and spyware. Although it is discontinued, WebRoot came back with even better and full-fledged security software. SecureAnywhere is amazing at what it does, and it also somehow manages to stay very lightweight.
For iOS and Android generations, SecureAnywhere will make you feel right at home with its slider interface, which is very easy to navigate. We wish such sophisticated and modern interface (that also doesn’t ignore usability) will be an inspiration for many other antivirus products. There is no fiddling with hierarchy of menus. For power users, there are serious customization and configuration options available too.
Not only it aced all our real life tests, but it also leaves very little footprint in terms of system performance. It detected all threats we used, and it also cleared them without a drop of sweat. The stubborn malware and stuffs in fake Google Chrome installer? SecureAnywhere cleaned them real quick. Plus, it takes very little memory and even during full system scan, it doesn’t take much CPU performance at all.
The only minor caveat we have is that the pricing isn’t cheapest among all products we tested. But we believe that you get what you pay for. For both novice and veteran computer users, WebRoot SecureAnywhere is the absolute winner.
Things we liked
- 100% perfect test results
- Amazing performance and low system resource usage
- Wide range of features (including firewall)
- Great balance between ease-of-use and configurability
2. VIPRE Antivirus 2013
VIPRE is prime example of how amazing antivirus software doesn’t need to be bloatware and use so much system resources. You know what “lean and mean” means? Yes, VIPRE is the poster child of that.
Unlike many other antivirus products we tested, VIPRE will sit quietly and work efficiently behind the scene, even when it’s doing a full scan or detecting and dealing with a virus. It is very low in terms of footprints and will not slow down your computer in any way. Sure, it has rather limited set of features, but its blazing fast performance and acing our tests scored a second place in our top 10 list.
Another interesting thing with VIPRE is its pricing. You will notice that it has subscription model and it is rather competitive. Unusual one at that too. There is also a very affordable package for ten computers at a time, and a lifetime subscription plan.
It was tough for us to choose between VIPRE and WebRoot for #1 spot. Both of them aced our tests and detected every threats. Both of them handled those infections pretty swiftly too. Performance levels were also very close. We had to give WebRoot #1 position since it comes with extra features. Having said that, VIPRE is a serious contender WebRoot SecureAnywhere will have to watch out for.
WebRoot scored 95% in our tests and VIPRE scored 93%. However, we recommend against choosing between the two solely based on measly 2% difference. Your choice will depend a lot on your requirements, so try out the trial versions of each before you decide to purchase. Regardless of what you choose between the two, you won’t regret about it.
Things we liked
- 100% catch rate in our real-life tests
- Excellent performance
- Superb value for money
3. ZoneAlarm PRO Antivirus and Firewall 2013
ZoneAlarm is well known for its excellent firewall product. But did you know that ZoneAlarm PRO also comes with antivirus solution too? If you didn’t, it’s alright. It was a bit of a news for us too.
To be perfectly honest, ZoneAlarm at first struggled to be in our top three. First thing first, ZoneAlarm is better known as a firewall product so we have to admit that we doubted its capability as an antivirus product. Then we faced some issues during installation. Not deal breakers but some nuisances.
But then our tests revealed that it is a very good bundle of both firewall and antivirus. The very fact that, despite of initial struggle, it remains in our top three shows a lot about its capability and performance.
One main reason of its high score is due to amazing range of features. In fact, it has more features than many other antivirus products. You are not just getting an antivirus software, but also a world-class renowned firewall, a 5GB free cloud backup service and a lot of cool extra features.
But there is no way we will be ranking them in top #3 based just on features. None of their amazing features will matter and make sense if ZoneAlarm PRO can’t catch and prevent our real-life threat tests. We are pleased to say that it passed all of them and handled threats with grace.
This bundled suite of products that will protect your computer from not just virus threats but also hacking attempts and trojans comes with an affordable price tag, especially if you have multiple computers to protect.
What we liked
- Loads of features
- Good multi-PC bundle (with affordable price tag)
- Great test results
This post was written with the help of BestAntivirus.com.
