If free antivirus tools are so great, why should anybody pay? For one thing, quite a few of these products are free only for noncommercial use if you want to protect your business, you must pony up for the paid edition. But at least for now, we're removing Kaspersky products from our 'Best for' lists.

We've left the reviews in place, with a warning, since they provide useful information. The FCC labeled Kaspersky a national security risk.Īfter consideration, we can no longer recommend that you purchase Kaspersky security products, or even use them for free. Governments and third parties are cutting ties with Kaspersky. However, the current war in Ukraine has raised the stakes. We at PCMag focused on the capabilities of the products, not on the brouhaha around the company. Here's why.įor years, Kaspersky has faced accusations and censure based on its Russian origins, though none of the accusations have come backed by hard evidence of malicious behavior. Unfortunately, we can't recommend it anymore. Kaspersky's antivirus prowess awes the independent testing labs, who routinely assign it perfect or near-perfect ratings. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free isn't just a free antivirus-it's a stripped-down version of Kaspersky's top-tier cross-platform security suite. Some take the fight to the browser, working hard to ensure you never even browse to a malware-hosting site, or get fooled into turning over your credentials to a phishing site. All the antivirus programs in this collection offer real-time malware protection. Your antivirus should certainly have the ability to root out existing malware, but its ongoing task is to prevent ransomware, botnets, Trojans, and other types of nasty programs from getting a foothold.

And since they’re free, you lose nothing by trying several before making a final decision. Some free products beat out all but the best commercial antivirus utilities. And since the core technology is the same, paid or free, you get high-quality protection at no cost. They make money when those customers recommend the paid version for use at work, or upgrade to a full security suite. Many security companies have built their success on widespread distribution of a free product to consumers. Surprisingly, free antivirus protection doesn’t truly fit that model.

You’ve heard the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” That is to say, if you get something for free, you’re paying for it somewhere else. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.

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