Antivirus Reviews — Honest, Lab-Tested, No Paid Rankings
Fourteen consumer antivirus brands, scored on the same six pillars, with public weights and the year-2 renewal price most reviewers will not show you. Phase 1 ships the index; the Microsoft Defender review is live now and the remaining 13 publish through Phase 3 as the in-house test cycle completes for each engine.
Direct answer
SafeScan Now's review index covers the 14 antivirus brands that account for the vast majority of consumer market share in the English-speaking world. Each review uses the same six-pillar scoring formula (Detection 30%, Performance 20%, Pricing 15%, Privacy History 15%, Ease of Use 10%, Support 10%) with public weights documented at /methodology/. We publish a critical review of every brand on the list — including the ones we link to as affiliates — and we publish a separate /antivirus-to-avoid/ list for brands whose track record we cannot recommend at any price.
All reviews (14 brands)
Phase 1 ships the index. The Microsoft Defender review is live now; the remaining 13 publish through Phase 3 as the in-house test cycle completes for each engine.
Tier 1
Norton 360
TBD
/ 100
Strongest parental controls and unlimited VPN; renewal jump is the catch.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1
Bitdefender Total Security
TBD
/ 100
Top of the field on detection and the smallest performance impact in independent labs.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1
Kaspersky Premium
TBD
/ 100
Deepest configuration; review the geopolitical guidance and US compliance scope before purchase.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1
ESET HOME Security
TBD
/ 100
Cleanest install, fairest renewal price, modest extras.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1
McAfee+ Premium
TBD
/ 100
Aggressive bundling (VPN, identity protection); first-year discount is steep, renewal is steeper.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1
Trend Micro Maximum Security
TBD
/ 100
Strong web-protection layer; mid-pack on independent detection scores.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 2
F-Secure Total
TBD
/ 100
Finnish vendor with a strong privacy stance; smaller feature set than Tier 1.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 2
G DATA Total Security
TBD
/ 100
German vendor, dual-engine architecture; consistent in independent labs but heavy footprint.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1 (Flagged)
Avast One
TBD
/ 100
⚠ Privacy History — Jumpshot 2020Detection is competitive; the Avast Jumpshot data-sale incident keeps Privacy History weighting low.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1 (Flagged)
AVG Internet Security
TBD
/ 100
Sister brand to Avast under Gen Digital; same engine and same Privacy History considerations.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 3
TotalAV
TBD
/ 100
⚠ Renewal pricing concernsHeavy first-year discount, documented refund and renewal complaints. Read /antivirus-to-avoid/ before purchase.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 2
Panda Dome
TBD
/ 100
Cloud-based engine, light footprint; mid-pack detection and minimal extras.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Tier 1
Malwarebytes Premium Security
TBD
/ 100
Originally a second-opinion scanner; now a full AV with strong remediation focus.
From [TBD] (Y1)Read review (Phase 3)Built-in (Free)
Microsoft Defender
Live
/ 100
Microsoft's built-in engine. Lab-tested and competitive with paid products on Windows 11.
From Free (Y1)Read full review →
Read by platform or use case
If you already know what you need the antivirus for, jump straight to the relevant best-list — each pulls from the same review pool with use-case-specific scoring.
How we score every review
The same six pillars apply to every brand on this page. Public weights, public inputs, public refresh cadence — disagree with our weighting and you can pressure-test the maths yourself.
Read the full methodology →Detection
30%Performance
20%Pricing
15%Privacy History
15%Ease of Use
10%Support
10%
Brands we don't recommend
Three brands currently land on our /antivirus-to-avoid/ list — TotalAV (documented refund and renewal-billing complaints), Avast and AVG (Privacy History flagged after the 2020 Jumpshot data-sale incident and the FTC settlement that followed). None is permanently excluded; each can re-enter the recommendable list if the underlying behaviour changes. The reasoning is documented per-brand on the linked page.
FAQ
Reviews — FAQs
If a question is missing, write to corrections@safescannow.com and we will add and answer it on the page.
Bottom line
Fourteen brands, one scoring formula, public weights, year-2 renewal pricing transparent. The Microsoft Defender review is live; the remaining 13 publish through Phase 3 as the in-house test cycle completes. If you cannot wait, the flagship /best-antivirus/ list and the use-case sub-lists already give you the comparative rankings.