Norton Antivirus Reviews

Norton Antivirus – PC security & protection

Are you looking for a comprehensive security solution for your PC? If yes, then meet Norton. Norton is a leading security software provider with decades of experience. It offers services and solutions to protect your computer against malware, viruses, and ransomware. According to independent third-party labs, its virus protection is one of the best. Moreover, it is feature-rich, where you can access other features such as a password manager, secure VPN, parental controls, smart firewall, privacy protection, webcam protection, and many more!

Norton’s pricing philosophy is also simple as it doesn’t complicate their plans. Of all their plans, Norton 360 provides the most comprehensive protection for the user.

Is Norton still a good antivirus?

Yes, Norton is a good antivirus solution. Its anti-malware engine can capture new and old malware with high accuracy. Its real-world performance is excellent, as per the third-party independent testing labs. Moreover, it has a minimal performance impact on your PC, with plenty of options to scan or schedule virus checks. Norton 360 provides better internet security, malware protection, and virus protection. This Norton security plan also features other features that protect your online privacy.

Norton Antivirus Plus

Norton Antivirus Plus is a dedicated antivirus solution for PC users. It has scored highly in independent lab tests and has many features, including online threat protection, cloud backups, smart firewalls, and a password manager. It is also well priced at $14.99 for the first year and then $59.99 per year afterward.

Details of Norton Antivirus Features

Norton’s Antivirus protection is one of the best antivirus solutions in the market. Like other antivirus service providers, Norton offers a good selection of services and solutions that go beyond just virus protection. Overall, you can expect top-tier protection from Norton regarding viruses, malware, ransomware, and online privacy. To better understand, let’s go through the Norton features below.

Norton offers one of the best real-time threat protection. To reach a high level of protection, Norton utilizes a multi-layered approach to protect the devices from emerging malware. Real-time protection also ensures that your financial and private information is kept safe in every situation.

At the core, Notoron utilizes its anti-malware engine. The engine uses machine learning and heuristic analysis to identify malware. With it, you get complete virus protection. Moreover, the anti-malware engine works on different platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.

Norton Antivirus comes with different scanning options. These options include:

• Quick Scan – Quickly scan over your system, including common places where malware can stay hidden. These places include running processes, temporary files, and system files.
• Custom Scan – Choose which part of the PC you want to scan, which can include any disk or folder location
• Norton Insight – Enables users to scan specific files.

You can also schedule the scans. On average, it takes 40-50 minutes for full disk scans to complete. Moreover, Norton is smart enough to know that you are using full-screen apps and then uses the knowledge not to show you notifications. This feature is very useful for gamers or movie buffs who binge-watch new movies and shows.

Norton also comes with a secure VPN solution. The VPN lets you protect your online identity and keep identity theft actors from stealing your information. VPN does it by encrypting the traffic between you and the server. Norton has a good collection of servers worldwide, with choices in South Africa, Singapore, Australia, India, the US, and others.

The key features offered by Norton Secure VPN include:

If you are a parent, you can take advantage of the Safe Family feature. It is a parental control feature available on Android, iOS, and Windows. You can do a lot of things with parental control, including:

It also comes with School Time mode, which gives access to the necessary apps and websites for children’s education.

In short, The Safe Family feature records every activity on the computer, including search results, Hulu programs, or YouTube videos. Moreover, it works on multiple devices, including iPhone, PC, or even Chromebook.

Norton Smart Firewall provides additional protection to its users. Norton’s Smart Firewall offers a lot of upgrades when it comes to traditional operating system firewalls. It helps keep instructions away, which Windows firewalls generally fail to block.

Additionally, Smart Firewall is entirely configurable. It allows advanced users to configure their firewalls and set up their Wi-Fi network accordingly. Norton firewall also takes care of public Wi-Fi networks and blocks necessary Windows services, including File and Printer Sharing and Remote Desktop Connection. In addition, there are other services that Norton blocks when connected to public Wi-Fi. To get the complete list, you need to check the Norton settings. Also, you can unblock any of the services by going to Windows services and making changes to the Permission windows.

Dark web monitoring provides an extensive privacy feature that looks for your taxes on the dark web. For example, it will go through the dark web credit reports, breach databases, and search for leaked information. Even though this is a great feature, it is unavailable in every country. The Dark Web Monitoring feature is currently only available to citizens of New Zealand, the UK, the US, Australia, and Germany.

Norton uses live human agents that infiltrate dark web forums to learn about data breaches better.

Norton’s LifeLock identity protection provides key features to protect your identity. It is available only to US customers. The key features offered by LifeLock identity protections include:

• Legal assistance
• Live identity recovery assistance
• Credit freezing
• Credit report monitoring
• Court record
• 401K
• ID monitoring
• Home title
• Social security

As a consumer, you can take complete benefit of the feature. It monitors your credit report constantly and notifies you if someone tries to steal your personal information and use it to make investments, purchases, or credit card applications. In addition, to ensure authenticity in its report, it compiles the data from top US credit reporting services, including Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

In short, if someone tries to steal your information and use it, LifeLock will notify you. Moreover, LifeLock also offers insurance payouts of up to $1M. This is paid out in case of serious identity theft. If you want lower coverage, you can always opt for lower plans that offer up to a $25,000 payout in case of any identity theft damages.

Norton is one of the few antivirus providers offering secure cloud backup. However, it is a limited backup store for users, similar to iCloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox. The backup storage limitation depends on your plan and ranges from 10-500 GB.

With the Cloud backup, you can do the following:

• Backup your files
• Schedule backups
• Save or remove backups to your local drive

On top of that, Cloud backup is smart enough to automatically select important files up to 50 GB. These files can have different extensions, including .jpeg, .mov, .wav, and .doc. If you are an advanced user, you can go to the backup settings and manually select the files you want to back up.

Norton’s also comes with Safe Web and Safe Search. A web browser extension supported on major browsers, including Ede, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. The extension protects your online journey by providing important information about the sites you visit. In addition, it considers community reviews to inform you about suspicious web pages. Apart from that, it also comes with an Isolation Mode that lets you do financial activities, including online banking.

Additionally, you also get the Safe Search engine that lets the user know if a website is safe to visit or not. In short, you get complete anti-phishing protection with Safe Web and Safe Search.

The browser majorly operates in “read-only” mode in the Isolation Mode, blocking all browser-based instructions. This way, it ensures that no plugin or extension can steal your information. Moreover, it also blocks screen recording, which deters hackers that uses screen recording to steal vital information.

On the other hand, the Safe Search tool provides color-coded results to give the user an idea of what to expect when browsing. The color codes used by it are:

• Green: Safe
• Orange: Potentially unsafe
• Red: Dangerous

You can optimize your device with the help of Norton’s device optimization features. Norton’s system tune-up tool is available via Norton’s 360 plan. The key features offered here include:

• File cleanup
• Optimize disk
• Graphs
• Startup manager

Norton offers complete protection with the help of the privacy monitor. It works by protecting your data from data brokers. To protect your data from being recorded and sold, Norton contacts the different data brokers worldwide and requests them to stop. To access the privacy monitor online, you can visit “my. Norton” and, from there, enter your data to check if it is already being sold by data brokers or not. If it is sold, then you can request its removal.

Norton’s password manager is a handy addition. It lets you easily manage your passwords by enabling you to save and auto-fill them. It can also save addresses and financial information. However, do not expect it to be as comprehensive as dedicated password managers such as 1Password.

The key features offered by Norton’s Password Manager include:

You can easily import your password from a browser or other dedicated password manager. However, you need to set up a master password before using it. Norton also has Norton vault auditing tools to make your password more secure. The tool lets you know if your password is secure, repeated, or simply too old. To simplify changing to a strong password, you can use the “Autochange” feature, which generates strong passwords.

Lastly, you also get a mobile login option with Norton password manager, which lets you quickly login into your password vault without the need to enter your master password.

Norton Antivirus Price

Norton comes with an excellent ecosystem of products and solutions. Currently, they are offering five plans:

• Norton AntiVirus Plus – starts at $14.99 first year, $59.99 afterward
• 360 Deluxe – starts at $34.99 first year, $104.99 afterward
• Norton 360 with LifeLock Select – starts at $99.48 first year, $149.99 afterward
• Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus – starts at $299.88 the first year and $349.99 afterward.

Let’s explore the plans below.

Norton Antivirus Plus pricing starts at $14.99 for the first year. After one year, you need to pay $59.99 per year. The Antivirus Plus plan is for those who are looking for antivirus protection. It is available for Mac and PC, and you get only one license. So, if you have two PCs, you need to get two licenses(one for each).

The key features offered by Norton Antivirus Plus include:

• Works on 1 PC or Mac.
• Online threat protection
• Anti-spyware, Malware, Antivirus, and Ransomware protection
• 2 GB cloud storage backup
• Password manager
• Smart firewall
• 100% virus protection promise

Norton 360 Deluxe is an annual plan, starting at 34.99 first year and $104.99 afterward. It offers overall better protection compared to Norton Antivirus Plus. Moreover, you can also use Norton 360 Deluxe on multiple devices, including tablets, smartphones, PCs, and Macs. You get five licenses with the package. Norton 369 Deluxe offers everything that Norton Antivirus Plus comes with. Here, you get an additional School Time and Parental Controls feature. You also get Online Privacy with Norton 360 Deluxe, where you can access a Secure VPN.

The key features you get with Norton 360 Deluxe include:

• Online threat protection
• Five licenses
• 50 GB cloud storage.
• Smart Firewall
• Anti-spyware, anti-malware, and antivirus
• Ransomware protection
• Password manager
• 100% virus protection promise
• School time
• Parental control
• Secure VPN
• Privacy monitor
• PC SafeCam
• Dark Web Monitoring

Norton 360 with LifeLock Select

The Norton 360 with LifeLock Select pricing starts at $99.48 for the first year and $149.99 afterward. You can also get the plan monthly at $9.99/mo for the first year and then $14.99 afterward. Here, you get everything offered within the Norton 360 Deluxe. In addition, here, you get LifeLock protection which protects your online privacy. Like the Deluxe, it also supports up to 5 PCs, smartphones, tablets, or Macs.

The key features that you get with Norton 360 with LifeLock Select include:

• Everything Norton 360 offers
• LifeLock Identity Alert System
• Stolen Wallet protection
• US-based identity restoration specialists
• Million Dollar Protection Package, up to $25K and $1M
• Credit monitoring
• Credit and SSN alerts
• ID verification monitoring

Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus

Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus is their most feature-packed plan. It comes with all the features of Norton 360 with LifeLock Select. The only difference between the Norton 360 with LifeLock Select and Ultimate Plus is the number of devices you can activate. Here, you can activate as many Macs, PCs, smartphones, and tablets(with few restrictions). That’s why the Ultimate Plus is a good pick for businesses or enterprises. The Ultimate Plan starts at $299.88 for the first year and then $349.99 for the next year onwards. If you go for the monthly plan, it will cost $29.99 per month for the first year and then $34.99 per month from the following year onwards.

The additional features that you get with this plan include:

• Identity lock
• Data breach notifications
• Fictitious identity monitoring
• Cred Card and Bank activity alerts
• 401(K) & Investment activity alerts
• Court records scanning
• Home title monitoring

Norton 360 for Gamers

Norton 360 for Gamers is aimed at gamers who want device protection. Its price starts at $29.99(1st year), followed by $99.99 per year afterward. If you go with a monthly plan, it will cost you $7.99 per month for the first year, followed by $9.99 per month. With Norton 360 for Gamers supports, you can protect up to 3 PCs, Macs, tablets, or smartphones. This also means that it is available on four major operating systems, including Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android.

The core features offered by Norton 360 for Gamers include:

• Game optimizer
• 50 GB cloud backup
• Notification optimization
• Full-screen detection mode
• Dark web monitoring
• PC Safecam
• Smart firewall for PC
• Real-time threat protection
• Secure VPN
• Password manager

Norton Secure VPN lets users browse the internet while securely protecting their privacy. The VPN is available on Mac, PC, or mobile devices. The prices start from $29.99 per year for 1 or 5 devices. Opting for ten devices will cost you $59.99 per year($99.99 afterward). Norton Secure VPN also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee if you opt for the annual membership.

The key features offered by Norton Secure VPN include:

• On-the-go access
• Detect insecure and compromised network
• No-log policy
• Split tunneling
• Kill switch
• Wi-Fi security
• Block ad trackers
• Bank-grade encryption to protect information
• Hide your location, provides anonymity
• Easy access via VPN global servers

Other Norton Software and Services

Apart from the above core Norton services and solutions, Norton also offers the following:

Norton Family

It starts from $49.99 per year. It protects your kid’s online internet experience by ensuring healthy online coverage and a proper healthy life balance. Norton Family offers the following key features:

• Web Supervision
• Search Supervision
• Time Supervision
• Parent mobile app
• Access request
• Video supervision
• Mobile app supervision
• Monthly/weekly reports
• Parent Portal
• Instant lock
• Email alerts
• Location supervision
• School time
• Alert me
• Favorite locations

Norton Computer Tune-Up

The Norton Computer Tune-Up service lets you clean up your computer and make it run like new. It starts at $49.99 per service. The key features that you get with Norton Computer Tune-Up include the following:

• 24 x7 service
• Summary service reports
• It makes your computer faster
• Comprehensive performance improvements

Norton Ultimate Help Desk

Norton Ultimate Help Desk is their on-demand IT help that lets you fix tech issues. It is available 24/7 and is convenient, comprehensive, and cost-effective. The pricing plans for it includes the following:

• Norton Ultimate Help Desk Single Use: $69.99 per service
• Monthly: $19.99 per month
• Annually: $149.99 per year

The Norton Utilities Ultimate provides tools to fine-tune your machine. You can get access to Norton Utilities Ultimate for $29.99 for the first year and then $69.99 per year afterward. Moreover, you can use it to boost 10 PCs. The key features offered by Norton Utilities Ultimate include the following:

• Easy-to-use interface
• Removes obsolete and invalid data from the registry
• Improves digital privacy

Norton Small Business pricing starts at $99.99 per year for five devices. The other pricing plans for Norton Small Business include the following:

• Ten devices: $149.99 per year
• 20 devices: $249.99 per year

Alternatives to Norton Antivirus

Norton Antivirus is an excellent way to protect your PC. It comes with advanced features protecting against viruses, malware, and ransomware. The additional features add value to the bundles offered by Norton. However, it may not be the first choice for everyone out there. One of the biggest reasons is that Norton is expensive. On top of that, they do not offer any free version.

That’s where the Norton Antivirus alternatives come in. Let’s list them below.

Malwarebytes for businesses is aimed at businesses as it protects them from all malware forms. However, it does come with a free version that you can try before deciding if it fits your needs. The key features offered by Malwarebytes include ease of use, heuristic-based scanning, and excellent ransomware protection.

Bitdefender is also one of the popular antivirus solutions. They are leading cybersecurity players with solutions for both homes and businesses. For homes, they offer many solutions, including Bitdefender Premium security, Bitdefender total security, Bitdefender premium VPN, and Bitdefender Digital identity protection. For business, Bitdefender offers access to endpoint-to-endpoint protection. The key features of Bitdefender include real-time data protection, advanced threat defense and network threat prevention, anti-phishing, anti-fraud, web attack prevention, multi-layer ransomware protection, and vulnerability assessment.

Even though McAfee doesn’t offer any free antivirus version, it does offer an affordable yet powerful antivirus alternative to Norton. Just like Norton, it does offer an ecosystem of services and solutions. However, its best plan is AntiVirus plus, which protects ten devices for one year at $24.99. The key features of McAfee antivirus include automated privacy, custom guidance, advanced monitoring, identity protection service, firewall, safe browsing, file shredder, and password manager.

ESET protects against zero-day threats and ransomware. The ESET PROTECT advanced is ideal for businesses and enterprises. However, if you are only looking for Antivirus protection, you can check out ESET NOD32 Antivirus. With over 30 years of experience, you get the best security software in the industry. In addition, they offer an endpoint security solution that utilizes multifactor authentication and military-grade encryption.

Moreover, it is easy to use and provides real-time protection for its user. At its core, ESET uses a multi-layered endpoint protection technology that consists of multiple layers of protection to protect against malware. In addition, it also uses machine learning to ensure complete protection. ESET also provides excellent protection against ransomware with cloud sandboxing. You can try out their products for 30 days without entering your credit card details. It is available on three major platforms: Windows, Android, and macOS.

Suppose you are looking for a robust, powerful, easy-to-use AVG antivirus. It is also free to use, making it a great pick if you want a free alternative to Norton Antivirus. The AVG antivirus protects you against malware and viruses. Moreover, it is also great against ransomware. If you want more protection, you need to get both paid options for AVG Internet Security or AVG Antivirus. Some of the key features offered by the AVG Antivirus include malware protection, real-time updates, phishing protection, email shield, and real-time scanning.

There are other Norton antivirus alternatives that you can try, including:

What antivirus is better than Norton?

There are many good antivirus solutions out there. In addition, there are many third-party testing platforms to objectively test them, including AV-Test, SE Labs, and AV-Comparatives. On top of that, each independent labs have its way of quantifying the antivirus performance in real-world settings. So, in general, you need to take at the numbers and understand their testing procedure to understand which antivirus is better. That’s why there is no clear-cut answer to which antivirus is better than Norton.

That’s why it is important to review the ratings before deciding. As for your choices, you can choose between many good antivirus providers, including AVG Antivirus, McAfee, ESET, Malwarebytes, and Bitdefender. Most of the providers offer a free product or a free trial. You can use the free trial or free version to see if it fits your requirement and then go ahead with it.

McAfee vs. Norton

If you have to decide between McAfee and Norton, which one should you pick? Let’s find out below. Both Norton and McAfee offer excellent packages with a high level of malware detection. They both also offer extensive ransomware protection. To get a clear picture, let’s compare them through the following criteria:

• Protection

When it comes to protection, there is no real winner. Instead, both of them offer excellent third-party test results.

• Real-time protection

Norton seems to provide better overall real-time protection in real-time protection, as shown in the AV_comparatives. However, McAfee also did good in real-world, real-time testing and stands very close to Norton.

• Malware removal

Norton and McAfee seem to do great in malware removal.

• Firewall protection

Firewall protection ensures that no malicious actor can access your computer or network. Norton utilizes Intrusion Prevention System(IPS) to protect the machine. The ISP also hides unused ports, which are not visible to hackers. Apart from that, it also protects you from harmful websites by blocking those. McAfee, on the other hand, offers good firewall protection as well.

• PC performance

Norton seems to have more CPU and disk load while focusing on memory for PC performance. Norton is almost 50% faster than McAfee in quick scans. As for full scan, Norton is almost five times faster compared to McAfee but does take the load on disk and CPU. McAfee seems to be very memory-hungry when it comes to full scans.

• Pricing

McAfee and Norton are almost similar when it comes to pricing. In both cases, you get discounts on the first year’s prices with increased pricing from the 2nd year onwards. However, both of them offer trials for their customers. This way, you can always try out their products without committing early.

• Features

You get more features with Norton if you choose their Norton 360 Deluxe edition. For example, the Deluxe edition includes phone takeover monitoring, credit monitoring, and 401(K) & Investment Activity Alert that McAfee doesn’t offer. In addition, McAfee’s file encryption and secure browser can come in handy when it comes to additional tools, which are not present in Norton. However, if you are looking for secure cloud storage, you need to choose Norton, as McAfee doesn’t offer secure cloud storage. The key features that both Norton and McAfee come with include a Firewall, VPN, Parental Control, Password Manager, Money-back guarantee, and Dark Web Monitoring.

In conclusion, there is no clear winner. However, Norton and McAfee provide excellent malware and virus protection with many additional features.

Norton Antivirus Review Conclusions

Norton is a comprehensive security solution that provides home and business users with excellent features. Norton’s core Antivirus plus is more than enough to protect you against viruses, malware, and ransomware. However, if you want complete protection, you must get higher plans such as Norton 360. Undoubtedly, you get many features, including real-time threat protection, smart firewall, identity theft protection, cloud backup, Safe Family, device optimization, privacy monitor, and password manager. The pricing is also kept simple. Moreover, Gamers can also take advantage of solutions aimed at them, such as Norton 360 for Gamers. Overall, Norton antivirus offers extensive virus protection and security for your PC.