With an unthinkable amount of antivirus companies and hundreds of different antivirus products which seemingly achieve the same goal, it can be hard to know which one to pick! There are a couple different factors you should consider when choosing an antivirus, to make it easier for you to decide and also to help fulfill your needs better when it comes to using the product. You may have a set of prerequisites which must be satisfied by the antivirus product you end up choosing, which is always a good start when hunting for the perfect solution in a crowded market. For example, you may have had a friend or family member affected by ransomware in the past, so you’d like for the antivirus to explicitly be able to protect you from this type of malware. Or perhaps you have heard of the great benefits from using a VPN service in conjunction with antivirus software, so you are looking for a product which explicitly includes VPN capability. But they are just my guesses, what should every good antivirus product include as part of the package?
The first and most important aspect to research in an antivirus product - Complete, efficient and trusted malware removal and protection. For antivirus products, there is nothing more important than it’s ability to protect the host computer from every type of malware, including rootkits. For confirmation of a certain brand’s ability to safeguard a computer, you can check out test results from AV-TEST and other comparative organizations in the antivirus space. Unfortunately, the tests are only done quarterly and therefore will not include data for the newest antivirus brands in the market, but they are still a good for gauging where older antivirus brands sit and how they compare with one another.
Another big factor worth considering in details is the feature set beyond just protection from malware, how do they stack up against each other once viruses are out of the question? Ever since the 00’s, antivirus software has been about much more than just malware removal, most solutions will now offer up much more in the form of extra features. It is important to keep your eye on the ball when researching this, the goal is to protect your digital world so watch out for unnecessary gimmicks. A great example of a quality addition to an antivirus service beyond PC protection is protection for your mobile device too. As the world shifts to viewing the internet through smartphones, more and more malware samples are being created solely to attack mobiles, especially android phones. Check to see if an antivirus has an app for your smartphone, this is a surefire indicator as to whether or not the antivirus supports protection of your mobile device too. If you find an antivirus which doesn’t support mobile, the smart move is leave it and look elsewhere - there are plenty of other companies who offer this at no extra monthly cost.