Antivirus is a must in this day and age regardless of your OS. Of course you’re more vulnerable if you’re on a Windows PC, especially on an older version of Windows but don’t think that just because you have a Mac you’re immune. Many Trojans and pieces of spyware can and sometimes especially target Macs and there was even a phishing scam masquerading as antivirus software a few years back. So here’s a list of ten awesome antivirus programs, mostly for Windows, but some cross-platform.
10. McAfee
McAfee is one of the biggest names on the market and unsurprisingly it offers a whole suite of features, ranging from social network protection to real-time anti-malware protection for all platforms. There’s even a version for mobile devices of all types and there’s one bundle that covers all your electronic devices as well, regardless of platform or OS.
9. F-Secure
Another great program F-Secure offers separate products for Windows and OSX with similar but separate features. It also offers a child safety filter, on-line backups and phone and tablet support.
8. AVG Antivirus
AVG is a classic and one that is going strong. AVG is now cross platform, cross system and offers everything from e-mail scanning in real-time to family filters to periodic auto tune-ups for your computer. It also comes with a free social protection piece of software so your social network accounts will never get hacked.
7. ZoneAlarm
Anti-virus is great because it offers great protection for free. There is a paid version as well and both are pretty good but the software is Windows only. Fortunately ZoneAlarm is now certificated by two of the top three antivirus test labs, something that wasn’t true a few years ago.
6. Norton
Symantec’s Norton Antivirus, now simply called Norton is one of the perennial classics of the software protection world and it is better than ever. Boasting ‘5 layers of security’ Norton is nowadays better than it has ever been, offering protection for PC and Mac, tune-up utilities, firewalls and family filters, on-line backups and theft trackers.
5. Bitdefender
Another Antivirus classic, Bitdefender has been around for ages but the eastern European wonder-ware shows no signs of aging. It offers everything its competitors throw in the ring and adds identity theft protection and secure banking encryption to the mix and all for a very low price.
4. Trend Micro
Trend now offers in addition to its classic services a smart and highly secure cloud storage system. While most consumers use the brand for their antivirus needs, a lot of big businesses are using Trend for their corporate mainframes nowadays and there are plenty more thinking of making the switch thanks to the company’s advanced antivirus global intelligence, in the espionage sense of the word.
3. Kaspersky
Kaspersky lab has been around for a decade and a half and its products are as good as they have ever been. It provides everything you’d expect from antivirus and antispyware to filters, firewalls and specialised server protection. It also updates hourly giving unparalleled protection for servers.
2. Panda Antivirus
Panda is now billing itself as a cloud-first company, emphasizing its on-line components over the rest and it has also shown a recent focus on portability as it has targeted laptops in particular. Though it doesn’t offer phone or tablet options it is still one of the best pc antiviruses out there.
1. ESET Nod Antivirus
ESET is one of the oldest antivirus companies in the world, with over 25 years of experience with virus detection and over 20 of antivirus legacy. It is a Czech product but it is absolutely fantastic, unparalleled in its protection and now available on all devices that you can think of. ESET really offers you everything you’d ever need for every platform out there: Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, Windows Mobile, even Symbian. Unfortunately it does not support iOS but that doesn’t matter. It is still one of the best products that you could ever hope to buy.
