Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a good antivirus pays for itself in the long run. Besides protecting your devices and machines from internet malware, it also makes it easy to use external hard drives and thumb drives without worrying about trojans and infected files.
But what kind of Antivirus do you need? Should you pay for one, or is it a free version enough? Is using antivirus software safe? While the answers to these questions can be complicated, we recommend getting started with some of our best, essential tips.
Pick software with a high malware-detection rate.
Malware detection is an important marker. Make sure you pick the software that stops at least 95 percent of malware without a high rate of false positives. While some free antivirus products protect your machine extremely well, paid products offer useful extra features like built-in ransomware protection, a file shredder, or even a password manager.
How much does it slow you down?
Examine carefully how much each product loads up your machine after it’s installed. This is important both in the background and during active malware scans, especially for older, slower PCs that might need this software the most.
Is it easy to use? Try before you buy it.
While a majority of users want a program, they can install and forget about, having one you can tweak to your liking is always a better bet. The best way to tell this is to try out the free version of the software for a month or so and then figure out if you want to spend a bit more for the paid version.
Pay for what you need.
While most antivirus products by a single brand will detect malware on Windows just as well as the others, the difference lies in the extra features like backup software, parental controls, password managers, online storage, and more. Figure out which of the extras you can live without and only pay for what you need. You might end up saving quite a bit through the year.
Think about multi-licenses.
If you have many computers, laptops, smartphones, and devices, picking a bundle that covers several devices over multiple platforms is the way to go.
