The Best Antivirus for 2013
The Best Antivirus for 2013
Which of the current antivirus tools are best? PCMag sorts them out.
By Neil J. Rubenking
September 19, 2013
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Contents
The Best Antivirus for 2013
Ad-Aware to BullGuard
Comodo to Malwarebytes
McAfee to Sophos
Spybot to Webroot
VIEW ALL PHOTOS IN GALLERY
Most antivirus vendors that run on a yearly update schedule wait until the fall to release the next year's version, just like car manufacturers. So, the "2014 models" appear in the fall of 2013. They're definitely rolling in; I've reviewed four that actually contain "2014" in the name. Four others come from vendors who've dropped the notion of adding a version or year number, but they're still the "(2014)" editions.
As new versions arrive, most of the same products retain their positions at the top of the heap. Here are the best from the current crop of antivirus products.
Name
Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus (2014)
Norton AntiVirus (2014)
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus (2014)
McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2014
Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2014
Editor Rating
Lowest Price
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Type
Business, Personal, Professional
Business, Personal, Professional
Business, Personal, Professional
Business, Personal, Professional
Business, Enterprise, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS, Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8
Read the Review
Read the Review
Read the Review
Read the Review
Read the Review
The Best Products
The antivirus field is huge; I currently track over forty products. In a field that big there's room for multiple products to earn the title of Editors' Choice.
Three products share the Editor's Choice honor for best overall antivirus: , and Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus 2013. (I expect the 2014 edition of Webroot's antivirus in a few weeks).
The Best Antivirus for 2013
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Bitdefender and Webroot both earned 6.6 points in my malware removal test, though they were tested with different sample sets. Norton, tested along with Bitdefender, slipped to 6.3 this time around, but its impressive multi-layered malware-fighting technology continues to impress.
Two free products also did well in testing. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.5 detected 83 percent of the samples and earned 5.8 points; for a while that was the top score. AVG AntiVirus FREE 2014 detected fewer samples, 78 percent, but more thorough cleanup earned it an impressive 6.4 points. AVG and Ad-Aware are our current Editors' Choice products for free antivirus. The new Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition (2014) also fared well in testing. It matched the full Bitdefender antivirus's malware blocking score, and earned a decent 6.2 points for malware cleanup.
Our two free Editors' Choice products share the best malware blocking score, 9.4 points, among products tested using my current malware collection. were close behind with 9.2 points. Tested with my previous malware collection, Webroot scored an impressive 9.9 of 10 possible points.
Interesting Variations
A full-scale antivirus tool both cleans up existing threats and keeps new attacks from getting a foothold. Sometimes, though, a counterattack by entrenched malware means you can't even install that hot-shot antivirus. In that case, a free removal-only tool can be a godsend. In my malware removal test, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.70 scored higher than any of the competition, paid or free. The well-known Malwarebytes is our Editors' Choice for free cleanup-only antivirus.
Of course, you do have to work to make sure your antivirus stays up to date, and you need to deal with any threats it reports. Or do you? In fact, once you install Daily Safety Check Home Edition you don't have to do a thing. Its managed antivirus will scan your system and block attacks, and it also ensures that you have all the latest security patches. If necessary, a support agent can remote-control your PC to clean up the worst infestations. All you need to do is view emailed safety reports. This unique service has earned Editors' Choice for consumer-side managed antivirus.
If ransomware or other malicious software has made it impossible to boot Windows, you need a solution that doesn't rely on Windows. When you boot from the hardware-based FixMeStick 2013, it automatically updates itself and runs a scan. All you need to do is click OK when it asks permission to clean up.
Newcomer Jumpshot is another interesting cleanup-only tool. It conceals a full-scale Linux-based bootable antivirus behind a user interface based on cartoon-style "minions" that handle tasks like wiping out malware, tuning system performance, and protecting your privacy. Jumpshot had the highest malware-removal score among products tested with my current malware collection, until it got edged out by Bitdefender.
Antivirus Tests
Where did those scores come from? To test an antivirus product's ability to deal with existing malware infestations, I install it on twelve malware-infested virtual machines. After running the most comprehensive scan available, I check which threats the antivirus detected and note how well it cleaned them up. This article explains how I derive the scores in the chart that follows: How We Test Malware Removal.
Antivirus malware removal chart
Starting with the introduction of my new malware collection earlier this year, I've added a new metric to my malware removal charts, an ease of installation score. I base this score on how tough it is to install the product on my malware-infested systems. A product like Malwarebytes that installs on all twelve with little or no help from the vendor's tech support, well, that's a five-star performance. If tech support supplies ancillary tools like rescue disks or threat-specific removal tools that make installation possible, we're at four stars; Kaspersky is an example.
All too often, getting antivirus protection installed on an infested system takes hours or days of back and forth with tech support. If after a super-lengthy process the product does get installed, that's worth two to three stars. If it totally can't install on one or more of the twelve systems, well, we're down to one star. That's not the bottom, though. Sometimes the cleanup process renders a test system completely unusable. A product that "kills" any test system beyond tech support's ability to fix gets zero stars. And yes, it does happen.
I also install each product on a clean test system and see how well it prevents infestation by the same collection of threats. Most antivirus tools wipe out a portion of the samples the moment I open the containing folder. I launch those that weren't killed on sight and observe just how far they get before the antivirus takes action. The article How We Test Malware Blocking explains in detail how I come up with the scores in the chart below.
Antivirus malware blocking chart
Independent antivirus testing labs have vastly more resources at hand than I do, so they can perform tests on a scale beyond what I can manage. At present I track results from AV-Comparatives, AV-Test, ICSA Labs, Virus Bulletin, and West Coast Labs. I hope to be adding tests from NSS Labs and Dennis Labs later this year. The chart below summarizes current results, and this article goes into more detail about how I interpret those results: How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
Note that only Bitdefender and Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2014) earn top scores across the board. To be fair, both Norton and Webroot argue that the current crop of tests don't match real-world circumstances well enough to properly evaluate their products.
Antivirus lab tests chart
Whatever your antivirus needs, one of the over forty tools listed here should do the job. Note that the blurbs that follow are not the full reviews; click on the title of each antivirus to get to the full reviews, which detail my testing. Also note that we'll be updating this roundup often, adding reviews of the new AV software as it rolls out this fall.
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