As said in the title, my Kaspersky licence is ending soon, I used to use the Total Security option with 2 devices for 2 years (my laptop and PC) which was only €112. But that licence doesn’t exist any more, and it’s giving me another option (the premium) for 3 devices, 1 year for €92, which is way more expensive and gives me a lot of other stuff I don’t need (like the VPN).
What are some good alternatives? Or should I go with the Plus plan?
I’ve never really used any other antivirus, and I really like the user experience of Kaspersky, but I’m not sure if I want to spend more on it than I already did…
I’d recommend Malwarebytes if you want to switch. You can also throw in a Domain Name Server (DNS) provider that blocks malicious domains like Quad9 too. Here is where you can find how to use it on all devices. If you can change your DNS on your router too, then that will protect any other devices that are connected to you Wi-Fi, such as IoT devices or friend’s phones.
If you don’t need any of the other features, like the password manager, etc., then you can downgrade to the standard edition. Also, you can look for promos for a discounted serial number, add it to your account, and then switch to that.
Amazon storefronts from different EU countries sell digital licenses of Kaspersky Premium for less than you used to pay. For example, some have a 3 device/2 year license for €72.
Kaspersky Plus is more like the functional equivalent of Total Security even though Premium is the replacement for it in the new product lineup. Premium just adds a few extra features, not as many over Plus compared to the other tiers.
I have stayed with them for an exclusive years in all the PCs that I managed. No reason not to. Unless it’s geo restricted like a banned that happened in the US. I often consult others saying “If it’s not the best, why settle for mediocrity?”
I admit I thought Kaspersky was the best. But here in the US we can’t use it anymore. A brilliant company, but too close to the Russians.
McAffee is the next best thing. Stay with a trusted brand whoever you choose.
A wild read on Kaspersky Wikipedia. McAffee’s story is crazy also.
At the very least it’s a good second opinion scanner. It does have real-time protection in the premium version. And despite me not really recommending third-party AVs on any OS, it’s not a bad idea to have one for Windows. I have also heard a macOS security researcher recommend Malwarebytes for Mac. So from what I’ve heard, it does sound decent. Probably not as good as Kaspersky though.
Something is probably better than “nothing” unless computer performance is a concern.
Most AM suites have real time protection and MB used to be fairly expensive, which was never justified, as in comparative testing MB simply did not pick up many samples of known malware. They were even reluctant to agree to testing of their product, and at one point withdrew. Maybe things have changed.
I have a positive personal experience with ESET: it stopped advanced malware that utilized steganography. The malicious script packed inside the image was not even extracted by the process and it did not execute at all. That means ESET has many capabilities that are not well documented. (Yes, I was using the consumer product.)
I’ll vouch for ESET until the end times. Five years ago I encountered very sneaky malware that utilized advanced steganography (hiding information, in this case malicious script, in images). Despite not producing any notification (which puzzled me at first), my system did not execute it, while every other system was affected.