[POLL] What is the best PAID antivirus software for 2024?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello, 
  
This is the 2024 poll for best paid anti-virus (aka anti-malware aka internet security aka endpoint protection and so forth) security software.

The poll for free products is located here.  The poll for last year's best paid antivirus is located here.

If your choice is not listed, please choose "other" and reply below with its name.

This poll is multiple choice, so you can select two (or more) choices.  Feel free to leave a comment sharing what you chose and why.  
  
Regards, 
  
Aryeh Goretsky 

Edited January 1 by goretsky
fixed line spacing issue

[souper82]

For the last four years i have used Malwarebytes, before that my pc's were almost always full of virus', malware etc and since i was pointed towards MWB my pc has been free from everything. So i'll continue to use their product until the inevitable happens.

[DramaInc]

Data dont lie

https://customer.appesteem.com/home/deceptorfighters?year=2024

https://avlab.pl/en/results-march-2024/

Pretty much avoid Defender.  Much better options out there with higher performance and protection.  AVG/Avast surprised me, but also didnt, huge user base = huge data set.  

Trellix/Mcafee is bad, extremely bad on the enterprise side.  Easily bypassed and unstable.  

Edited August 17 by DramaInc

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

 

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 17/08/2024 at 20:19, souper82 said:

For the last four years i have used Malwarebytes, before that my pc's were almost always full of virus', malware etc and since i was pointed towards MWB my pc has been free from everything. So i'll continue to use their product until the inevitable happens.

I also use Malwarebytes Premium and have done so now for at least five years. I also have Malwarebytes Browser Guard installed although they just released a new version that works with Google's Manifest V3. Time will tell if it is still effective.

One of my old desktops had an infection but built in Microsoft solution couldn't remove it. I installed Malwarebytes Free and the problem was gone. Shortly after I began a subsciption and have been a satified paying customer to this day. 

[+Peter Alexander London Subscriber²]

On 02/01/2024 at 00:59, goretsky said:

Hello,

Per Neowin's Community Rules, discussions of advertisement blocking is not allowed.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

I am sooo sorry, won't happen again

PS

Love your site

[xrobwx71]

On 01/01/2024 at 10:32, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

There is no reason to pay for a 3rd-party anti-virus program IMO and I haven't in many years since before Windows 10. They are a rather invasive piece of software that tend to cause more problems than solve even being known to often be incompatible with new versions of Windows or features. The paid versions have a lot of unneeded bloat while free scanners are usually the same as the one in the paid version anyway.

Windows Defender is just fine (along with prompt security updates and an ad-blocker) so not sure why one would add the complexly to their system with a 3rd-party AV.

I was firmly in this camp about 5 years ago. Now? Not so much. 

I manage 16 PC/Laptops at work and 3 at home. My issues with Defender in the last few years:

1. False positives galore.

2.The inability to flag a false positive as safe and it stick. The sheer PITA of trying to approve a false positive.

3. My own tests showing malware getting through.

4. Defender has in the last few years slid in the tests at AV-Test and others.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 19/08/2024 at 07:56, xrobwx71 said:

I was firmly in this camp about 5 years ago. Now? Not so much. 

I manage 16 PC/Laptops at work and 3 at home. My issues with Defender in the last few years:

1. False positives galore.

2.The inability to flag a false positive as safe and it stick. The sheer PITA of trying to approve a false positive.

3. My own tests showing malware getting through.

4. Defender has in the last few years slid in the tests at AV-Test and others.

I would be hard pressed to recall a false positive with Windows Defender over the years on my machines (although down to one Windows machine these days that is a secondary machine).  I work in IT myself in a much bigger environment and in the "enterprise" one probably needs (is required) to go with a 3rd-party solution. I will say we have a saying here which is uttered often when something stop working that is "It's probably the [insert the name of our AV software]". LOL My all item favorite issue was when our AV software decided to start disabling keyboards. My comment was directed toward home uses who would be on the more tech savvy (as we are on a tech site). I see no reason to add a third-party AV solution that is going to use kernel-mode drivers that tends to be invasive and is going to add unnecessary complexity to your system. No thanks...

[xrobwx71]

On 19/08/2024 at 07:37, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

I would be hard pressed to recall a false positive with Windows Defender over the years on my machines (although down to one Windows machine these days that is a secondary machine).  I work in IT myself in a much bigger environment and in the "enterprise" one probably needs (is required) to go with a 3rd-party solution. I will say we have a saying here which is uttered often when something stop working that is "It's probably the [insert the name of our AV software]". LOL My all item favorite issue was when our AV software decided to start disabling keyboards. My comment was directed toward home uses who would be on the more tech savvy (as we are on a tech site). I see no reason to add a third-party AV solution that is going to use kernel-mode drivers that tends to be invasive and is going to add unnecessary complexity to your system. No thanks...

I wasn't trying for an argumentative stance, just a secondary point of view. I respect your experience and expertise immensely. 

I simply got tired of fighting with Defender. 

If you look back 4-5 years on Bleepingcomputer, Sysnative and other various tech platforms I'm a part of, I repeatedly counseled Users almost word for word of your first post.