Quality protection for your Windows computer or notebook is essential, so we bring you back the list of the best paid antivirus of 2020.
Antivirus software is almost as crucial as a PC’s operating system. Even if you are well aware of the potential threats and practice extreme caution, some threats simply cannot be avoided without the extra help of an antivirus program.
To help you with this task, we have selected the 10 best paid antivirus for Windows of 2020 . Every year, we present our list of the best paid antivirus of the year based on tests carried out by AV-Comparatives, a renowned specialist in digital security software.
This year, we had some changes in the order and even brands that left the list, while other brands appeared in the ranking, as you can understand at the end of this article.
Why is antivirus so important?
You can visit a website that intentionally displays malicious ads, or accidentally click on a phishing email. Another possibility is to be hit by a zero-day threat, where a bug allows hackers to enter your system. If you don’t have a good antivirus, your operating system will be compromised. And within that, all of your information that you use on your PC, such as your files, social media passwords, and even your bank details, are at risk.
Of course, an antivirus is not foolproof, but it can detect when the undisclosed vulnerability is used to install other nasty bits, like ransomware, on your machine. Anyone who actively uses email, click on links and download programs will benefit from an antivirus program. The Antiviruses below find a balance between excellent protection, an interesting selection of features and a minimal impact on your PC’s performance.
The 10 best paid antivirus of 2020
Without further ado, let’s get to know the best paid antivirus so you can choose yours.
Participating brands
- Avira Antivirus Pro
- Bitdefender Internet Security
- ESET Internet Security
- F-Secure SAFE
- K7 Total Security
- Kaspersky Internet Security
- McAfee Internet Security
- Symantec Norton Security
- Tencent PC Manager
- Total Defense Essentials Antivirus
- Trend Micro Internet Security
- VIPRE Advanced Security
The tests were carried out in the following categories:
- Real-time protection
- Performance
- False positive test
- Detection in files
- Malware Protection
Each of the results of this test will be separated by scoring bands.
Test 1: Real-time protection
Real-time protection is the ability of the antivirus to be always aware of all the digital steps of the Internet user and to identify a threat even before it infects the computer. That is, the antivirus monitors all accesses made to the machine, all the time.
The results are based on 703 real-time tests, such as accessing malicious URLs, downloading software, downloading malware. The test is based on the use of a common Internet user.
Punctuation
10 – 100%: Great
8 – Between 99.8% and 99.9%: Good
6 – Between 99.5% and 99.7%: Median
4 – Between 99% and 99.5%: Bad
2 – Less than 99%: Very bad
Real-time protection score result
- 10 – Avira
- 10 – Symantec
- 8 – TrendMicro
- 6 – Bitdefender
- 6 – Total Defense
- 6 – VIPRE
- 4 – McAfee
- 4 – F-Secure
- 4 – K7
- 4 – Kaspersky
- 4 – Tencent
- 2 – ESET
Note: it is worth remembering that it is not because the software has reached a score of 10 that you will be 100% secure in real-time protection.
Test 2: Performance
The performance test measures the impact of the software in relation to the performance of the computer. That is, how much the antivirus slows down your PC.
The tests were performed on a Lenovo E560 computer with an Intel Core i7-8550U CPU, 8GB of RAM and SSD, with clean Windows 10 1903 64-bit. The tests were done with an active Internet connection to allow the real impact of services and resources in the cloud.
The performance activities were:
- File copy
- Archiving / unarchiving
- Installing / uninstalling applications
- Starting applications
- Downloading files
- Browsing websites
- PC Mark 10 Professional Test Suite
This chart works the opposite of what we saw earlier. Now, the bigger the bars, the better to be used on the PC, because less antivirus impacts the performance of the machine.
Punctuation
10 – Up to 2 points: Great
8 – Between 2.1 and 4 points: Good
6 – Between 4.1 and 7 points: Median
4 – Between 7.1 and 10 points: Bad
2 – More than 10.1 points: Poor
Performance test score result
- 10 – ESET
- 10 – McAfee
- 10 – Kaspersky
- 8 – K7
- 8 – Bitdefender
- 8 – Avira
- 6 – VIPRE
- 4 – F-Secure
- 4 – Tencent
- 2 – Symantec
- 2 – Total Defense
- 2 – Trend Micro
Test 3: False alarm
The false alarm test consists of two parts: domains blocked incorrectly (during browsing) and files blocked incorrectly (during download / installation).
It is necessary to test both scenarios because testing only one of the two cases above could penalize products that focus mainly on one type of protection method, URL filtering or file protection on access / behavior / reputation.
Punctuation
10 – Up to 2 points: Great
8 – Between 3 and 10 points: Good
6 – Between 11 and 20 points: Medium
4 – Between 21 and 30 points: Bad
2 – More than 30 points: Very bad
Result of the false-alarm test score
- 10 – ESET
- 10 – Kaspersky
- 10 – Avira
- 10 – McAfee
- 8 – Total Defense
- 8 – F-Secure
- 8 – Bitdefender
- 8 – Symantec
- 6 – Trendmicro
- 4 – Tencent and K7
- 2 – VIPRE
Test 4: Malware Detection
One of the virtual plagues that most cause headaches in Internet users today are malware. These pests are small fragments of a program that was designed exclusively to cause damage to the machine. These pests are intended to steal information from the machine or damage it.
Malwares include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and spyware. In the test carried out by AV-Comparatives, we can see that the majority of paid antivirus performs well when it comes to malware detection.
In the Malware Protection Test, malicious files are run on the system. While in the Real World Protection Test the vector is the Web, in the Malware Protection Test, the vectors can be, for example, network drives, USB or cover scenarios where the malware is already on the disk.
The Malware Protection Test assesses the ability of antivirus to protect a system from malicious file infections before, during, or after execution. The methodology used for each product tested is as follows: Before execution, all test samples are subjected to checks on access and on-demand by the security program, each of which is done offline and online.
All samples that were not detected by any of these checks are run on the test system, with internet or cloud access available, to allow, for example, behavioral detection features to come into play.
Offline vs. malware detection online
Many of the products under test make use of cloud technologies, such as reputation services or cloud-based subscriptions, which are only accessible if there is an active connection to the Internet. When performing on-demand and access checks, both offline and online, the test provides an indication of how dependent on the cloud each product is and, consequently, how well it protects the system when an Internet connection is not available.
It is suggested to antivirus vendors highly dependent on the cloud to properly warn users if connectivity to the cloud is lost, as this can considerably affect the protection provided. In the test, it was verified whether the cloud services of the respective security providers are accessible or not.
Test 4: Online malware detection
Punctuation
10 – Between 99.1% and 100%: Great
8 – Between 98.1% and 99%: Good
6 – Between 97.1% and 98%: Median
4 – Between 96.1% and 97%: Bad
2 – Less than 96%: Poor
Offline test score result
- 10 – Avira
- 10 – Symantec
- 8 – ESET
- 6 – Kaspersky
- 6 – K7
- 6 – F-Secure
- 6 – Trend Micro
- 4 – Total Defense
- 4 – VIPRE
- 4 – Bitdefender
- 4 – Tencent
- 2 – McAfee
Test 5: Offline malware detection
Punctuation
10 – Between 98.1% and 100%: Great
8 – Between 97.1% and 98%: Good
6 – Between 95.1% and 97%: Median
4 -Between 90.1% and 95%: Bad
2 – Less than 95%: Poor
Result of malware detection score
- 10 – ESET
- 8 – K7
- 6 – Kaspersky
- 6 – Total Defense
- 6 – VIPRE
- 6 – Bitdefender
- 6 – Tencent
- 4 – F-Secure
- 4 – Avira
- 2 – Trend Micro
- 2 – McAfee
- 2 – Symantec
Test 6: Online protection fee
Finally, in terms of protection against malware, we have the online protection fee. In the online protection rate, the results were as follows:
Punctuation
10 – Between 99.99% and 100%: Great
8 – Between 99.96% and 99.98%: Good
6 – Between 99.91% and 99.95%: Median
4 – Between 99.86 %% and 99.90%: Bad
2 – Less than 99.85 %: Terrible
Result
- 10 – Tencent
- 10 – Trend Micro
- 8 – Symantec
- 8 – Avira
- 6 – Bitdefender
- 6 – K7
- 6 – F-Secure
- 6 – Kaspersky
- 4 – VIPRE
- 4 – ESET
- 2 – McAfee
- 2 – Total Defense
Conclusion of which best paid antivirus of 2020
Taking into account all tests and requirements, we arrive at the score table of the antivirus tested by AV-Comparatives, you can read all the tests here .
As you can see below, our great champion is Avira Antivirus Pro, with an average score of 9 points, where the maximum would be 10. Remembering that Avira had been in second place, losing to Kaspersky.
In second place this year we have the ESET, Kaspersky and Symantec antivirus tied.
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