You need antivirus software. Attacks on your PC keep getting more sophisticated, thanks to the help of AI—we’re seeing more and more AI-fueled attacks as the months tick by. Even the tech-savvy and cautious can get tricked into exposing themselves to malware, spyware, ransomware, or a phishing attack. Antivirus protection is an essential backup against such threats.
Windows computers come with basic security software baked into the OS, but for some folks, an upgrade can help demystify and simplify security. To help you choose a good suite, we’ve identified products that offer excellent protection, worthwhile features, and minimal performance impact on your computer.
Best antivirus of 2025 reviewed and ranked
Norton 360 Deluxe – Best antivirus for PC overall

Pros
- Strong antivirus protection
- Wide protection against major online threats
- Simple, straightforward features
Cons
- Performance impact on some PCs
- User interface would benefit from consolidation
- Upselling of additional services
Who should buy Norton 360 Deluxe?
Norton 360 Deluxe works for everyone—it consolidates all the biggest protections you need online into one affordable package, including parental controls. If you have trouble keeping up with security experts’ recommendations (or haven’t yet gotten around to following all of them), this suite centralizes and simplifies it all. That’s how it won out as our pick for the best antivirus software of 2025.
This plan has just about everything most PC users need, without extra bloat. For antivirus performance, Norton offers strong online protection, while having minimal impact on system resources if you don’t often download or copy large amounts of files. Additionally, you get malicious link and attachment screening, dark web and privacy monitoring, and webcam safeguards. Norton also tosses in 50GB of storage for cloud backups, access to Norton’s password manager and VPN, parental controls, and PC utilities that include the ability to monitor for outdated software. And those major extras—the password manager, VPN, and parental controls—have easy, simple interfaces, without feeling stripped to the bone.
Norton 360 Deluxe: Further Considerations
As part of its efforts to consolidate online security protections into a single software interface, Norton sports a refreshed user interface. It also began promising better scam protection at the beginning of the year, in addition to its other features. And despite all this value, its pricing remains very reasonable. For the first year, you’ll pay $50 for five devices, and then $120 per year thereafter.
Read our full Norton 360 Deluxe review
Avast One – Best overall runner-up

Pros
- Good new design
- Well priced
- Excellent performance
Cons
- Smart scan requires too much user intervention
- Avast asks to install Google Chrome
Who should buy Avast One?
For those seeking utter ease of use, Avast One not only offers solid protection, but a simple, friendly interface. Combine that together with useful extra features and multi-device coverage, and you have a winning combo.
In addition to top-ranked antivirus protection, it offers safeguards against remote webcam takeovers, malicious websites, and trackers. The Avast One plan also includes dark web monitoring, a VPN with unlimited bandwidth, and protections for saved passwords to a browser. You get utilities to help you keep your PC’s drivers up to date, clean up your PC, and optimize your apps, too.
These features may sound standard, and to be fair, many of them can be found in rival software. But Avast makes staying on top of security dead simple, whether you’re a novice or a security veteran. Its default settings require little input to keep your PC protected, and if you want to dig in further or tinker, you still have that option, too.
Avast One: Further Considerations
Unlike Norton 360 Deluxe (our top pick), Avast One does not come with a password manager, nor parental controls. Yet despite having fewer features, Avast One costs more. You’ll pay $84 for 5 devices (or $120 for up to 30 devices) during the first year. The subscription fee rises to $180 and $300, respectively, per year afterward.
Read our full Avast One review
AVG Internet Security – Best budget antivirus suite

Pros
- Top-rated antivirus protection
- Expanded protection against malicious websites and remote attacks
- Clean, straightforward interface
Cons
- Some PCs may experience a performance hit during heavier workloads
- Several features are a bit rudimentary
Who should buy AVG Internet Security?
AVG is best known for its excellent free antivirus software, but there’s good reason to upgrade. AVG Internet Security not only offers more comprehensive protection, but also easy management of those tools. That user-friendly interface is valuable if you find keeping up with online threats too overwhelming or time consuming.
The Internet Security plan builds upon the free version’s top-ranked protection against malware and web, email, and network threats. It also guards the passwords saved to your browsers; webcam takeovers; unknown access to files with sensitive data; malicious redirects for websites you’re trying to visit (aka DNS hijacking); and Windows Remote Desktop attacks. Dark web monitoring is included as well. And the app has minimal impact on system resources when monitoring your system in the background, though full scans can hit budget or older systems harder.
AVG Internet Security: Further Considerations
AVG Internet Security costs just $60 during the first year for 10 devices, with the fee rising to $100 thereafter. The price is fair, especially given the deeper control and more expansive protection compared to the free version. But without elements like parental controls, VPN, and a password manager, it doesn’t provide the same value as Norton 360 Deluxe.
Read our full AVG Internet Security review
Avira Prime – Best antivirus for beginners

Pros
- Strong security with a reasonable subscription price
- Well designed and user-friendly
- Offers a host of features in the areas of security, privacy, and performance
Cons
- No subscription option for fewer than five devices
- Simplicity of app feels slightly at odds with the depth of the PC tools
Who should buy Avira Prime?
Avira Prime is one of the best choices for those seeking more help with managing their PC, thanks to its simple, clear interface and feature lineup. In addition to to solid antivirus protection, it offers a password manager, unlimited VPN, and a boatload of PC utilities that (among other things) can keep apps up to date, securely delete files, and back up data.
Thise security suite will best suit users seeking a simple antivirus suite, broad online protections, and robust PC utilities—and also want to use those latter tools for more confident management of their computer. Not every utility is a winner, but the overall set can help you identify and understand the more technical aspects of Windows and system upkeep.
Avira Prime: Further Considerations
The one major feature missing from Avira Prime is a set of parental controls. You can’t use it to filter web content or monitor device usage. The app also can hit older and budget PCs hard when full scans are running, if you’ve added or changed large amounts of files. But typically, it only minimally affects system performance when left to run in the background, so most people won’t notice Avira running.
For the first year, you’ll pay $60 for the first year, and then $105 for every year after. That first-year cost is slightly higher than our overall top pick, but if you prefer more newbie-friendly software, it’s worth the extra ten bucks.
Read our full Avira Prime review
McAfee Total Protection – Best for privacy

Pros
- Good protection
- Nice features like file shredder and home network analyzer
Cons
- Mixed impact on performance
- New app design is a little scattered
Who should buy McAfee Total Protection?
Your personal information can be used against you online—and with data breaches so painfully common these days, it can be a relief to have help in tracking who has your info. For anyone who doesn’t have as much time to handle that work themselves, or even keep track of a separate service, McAfee Total Protection can serve as a central spot for managing all your online security concerns.
Total Protection hunts down current threats to PCs, with solid results. These days, dangers extend beyond just malware to identity and privacy issues, and this app addresses these just as much as it does ransomware and phishing sites.
That ID protection makes it stand out against competitors, especially if you pay to scale up the service. The plan we tested included dark web scanning for multiple pieces of personal information (email address, phone number, social security number, passport, driver’s license, date of birth, tax ID, credit card, usernames, and more). The app also offers to help change your password for online accounts, when applicable. VPN access is included as well.
McAfee Total Protection: Further Considerations
Mid-tier and budget machines can see impact on system resources when running McAfee scans. When we ran a full scan during a variety of common tasks (web browsing, document editing, etc), we noticed some dips in performance. You can mitigate this effect by timing scans for off hours, however.
Currently, McAfee Total Protection is available through third-party sellers (McAfee has turned its attention to its slightly newer McAfee+ plans on its website). We like this version still because of how extremely affordable it is—for example, a license on PCWorld’s own software site is just $19 per year, which covers up to ten devices for one year.
Panda Dome Complete – Most feature-rich offering

Pros
- Very easy-to-understand mobile-like interface
- Contains some basic smart home network monitoring
- Month-to-month pricing option
Cons
- Good performance results but currently limited in third-party testing
Who should buy Panda Dome Complete?
All deluxe antivirus suites offer extra tools as part of their package, but Panda Dome Complete particularly stands out. It also has one of the most striking interfaces we’ve seen, while still putting everything right at your fingertips. Similar to Microsoft’s Bing homepage, Panda Dome features a beautiful background photo, with the interface elements placed on top of it.
A whole raft of utilities come with this suite, including a virtual keyboard, advanced virus removal, an update manager for your Windows apps, a disk defragmenter, hard drive cleaner, and startup apps manager. You also get Wi-Fi protection (which lets you see what devices are connected to your network), a password manager, parental controls, and a VPN that offers 150 megabytes of bandwidth per day.
In addition to offering reliable antivirus protection, Panda had the most minimal impact on system performance during our benchmarks. So minor, in fact, that in the real-world it worked out to no difference.
Panda Dome Complete: Further Considerations
As one of the most feature-rich offerings, Panda Dome Complete is among the more expensive options. You can purchase a subscription for $54 during the first year ($90 per year afterward), but that’s covers just one device. Fortunately, it only costs a little more to upgrade to a three device plan ($55 for the first year, $100 per year afterward) or five device plan ($54 for the first year, $110 per year afterward).
Read our full Panda Dome Complete review
Windows Security

Pros
- Built into Windows 10 and 11
- Settings are easy to review and customize
- Integrates with other security aspects of Windows
Cons
- Tends toward false positives, especially with SmartScreen
- Lacks the advanced features found in third-party products