Best multi-device antiviruses
Before you dive into the free and paid versions of Android antivirus apps, there's one option you might want to consider: cross-device antivirus apps. Many software security companies offer an antivirus subscription that covers every device you own, including your laptops and desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
In most cases, the top-rated and most trustworthy audiovisual software companies offer standalone Android apps in the Google Play Store, with both free and paid versions. However, it may be best to take out a subscription from a company that covers all of your devices and not just your Android. And since the all-in-one subscription usually provides access to the Android app as part of the package, you might find more value this way if you were already intending to buy a quality Android antivirus app.
The following all-inclusive AV tools provide access to an Android antivirus application included in the subscription package:
1. Panda Dome.
Panda Security offers a user-friendly antivirus tool called Panda Dome, which is designed to protect all of your devices. As such, Panda Dome offers an Android application in addition to its Windows application for the subscription price.
2. Bitdefender Antivirus.
Bitdefender is among the best antivirus providers on the market. When we looked at their Antivirus Plus software for Windows, we found that it was extremely well-designed. The company's virus scanning tool is extremely effective, and it has one of the most aggressive (in a good sense of the word) real-time protection tools we've tested.
The service allows you not only to protect your Android mobile devices with a mobile version of its software, but also to manage your other Bitdefender Antivirus installations from the mobile application.
3. VIPRE Antivirus.
We gave Vipre Antivirus favorable reviews after conducting a comprehensive software test. The only major issue with this software company is its relatively poor customer service. Additionally, the company offers protection for your computers and Android devices as part of the same subscription. The VIPRE Android application has not been widely downloaded on the Google Play Store, mainly because VIPRE is a little-known company. However, its AV tool is worth checking out.
4. McAfee Antivirus Plus.
McAfee and its antivirus tools are well known and commonly used by businesses and individuals. In some cases, you'll find the McAfee antivirus tool pre-installed with a new Windows PC or laptop. It also comes with some popular software, including many Abode products. For those who have already purchased McAfee, or are considering purchasing the AV software, a McAfee Total Security subscription allows you to install the antivirus on your computer and the mobile version on your Android device.
5. Kaspersky Antivirus.
With its Internet Security and Total Protection options, Kaspersky offers coverage for tutti your devices, including Android OS devices and even Mac computers. As a company, Kaspersky is becoming increasingly known not only for its antivirus tools, but also for studying and researching Internet security issues, making it a reliable source for researchers and consumers.
Beyond these options, you can explore any of the standalone antivirus apps that are available for Android users.
Best Android Antiviruses
1. Google Play Protect.
Before looking at the other free options, we first need to identify the fact that your Android device already has an antivirus tool installed as part of the Google Play Store application. Known as Google Play Protect, Google's built-in AV tool already regularly scans installed apps, as well as any app you might try to install from the Google Play Store.
If a threat is found in the Play Store or in an application that you have already installed, Google Play Protect informs you and helps you manage the situation.
Google Play Protect is designed to remove dangerous apps and protect apps that you've installed. It will also let you know if a Play Store app is potentially dangerous. But it doesn't remove other potentially dangerous types of files that may exist outside of apps, and it may not be able to deal with a wide range of other malicious software that may be installed on an Android device.
You can check the security status of your Android application by opening the Google Play Store and clicking on the menu button (three lines at the top left of the screen).
From there, click Play Protect.
You can then see the security status of your applications and your device, and launch an analysis if you want to check.
Given the existence of Google Play Protect (a relatively little-known feature), many of your security concerns are already taken care of by your Android operating system without the need for additional software. And it's completely free. However, additional protection may be required to protect your device. It is therefore useful to explore other free and paid options given the limitations of Play Protect.
2. Lookout Security & Antivirus.
Chances are you've already heard of Lookout Security & Antivirus. As a regular Android user, I even had this one pre-installed on several Android phones. Lookout Security & Antivirus is one of the most reliable Android AV tools available on the Google Play Store, and yes, it's available for the very low price of free. However, the free version is quite limited, and while Lookout doesn't monetize the free version with ads, it does offer a paid version with extended features that is, frankly, a bit expensive.
Here are the main statistics for this application:
- User rating: 4.1 out of 5
- Downloads: Over 100 million
- # Number of customer reviews: 900,000+
- File size: 9.62 MB
- Additional features: Yes
- Developer country: USA
- Last updated: January 2020
- Supported by advertising? No
- Premium version? Yes
One thing is for sure, Lookout Security & Antivirus is really beautiful. And with the added benefit of not having ads eating away at your interface, it's a much more enjoyable experience.
You get free App Security, Location Tools (in case your Android device is lost or stolen), and System Advisor. Each of these provides the protection your Android device needs to be safe from intruders and thieves.
Flight alerts work using the GPS in your application. If the device is lost or stolen, you can sign in to your account on Lookout.com and find out where your device is. You can even lock and erase the device remotely. (All Android phones come with Android Manager which allows you to do that as well, which means you have that option even without Lookout).
If you want additional protection against theft, for example an automatic lock when the SIM card is removed or in the event of multiple access code failures, you will need to take out a Premium subscription.
For your basic needs, Lookout offers security features that scan for malware and even protect you against adware, app droppers, bots, chargeware (applications that load your digital wallets without your knowledge), click fraud, exploits, riskware, root access, root enablers, spam, spyware, survey-ware, toll fraud, trojans and other vulnerabilities. This is a fairly comprehensive list of protections Free.
If you want to expand your functionality, you'll need a paid account. The Premium plan starts at $2.99 per month, but if you want to benefit from identity check, social media screening, 24/7 recovery assistance, and $1 million in identity theft insurance (yes, they seriously sell identity theft insurance), you'll need to pay $9.99 per month, or $99 per year (discount applied).
Lookout is really a solid and free application. The absence of ads makes it one of the best options, so if you already have it pre-installed on your Android, you can keep it. If not, you may want to consider making it your go-to option.
3. ESET Mobile Security & Antivirus.
ESET is one of the few well-known antivirus manufacturers whose free application is on our list. The application has good support from users and very good customer reviews.
Here's how ESET Mobile Security & Antivirus measured up:
- User rating: 4.8 out of 5
- Downloads: Over 10 million
- # Number of customer reviews: 550,000+
- File size: 9.95 MB
- Additional features: Yes
- Developer country: USA
- Last updated: January 2020
- Supported by advertising? No
- Premium version? Yes
Coming from a reputable developer like ESET, this antivirus addon only suffers from the fact that it offers a host of interesting features for 30 days. During this time, ESET allows you to try the premium version of its application, after which you will be locked out of everything but essential AV tools. Nonetheless, ESET offers quality AV tools for Android users, so it's not that bad.
With the trial version of the premium version, you get real-time virus scanning and monitor, an anti-theft tool that uses the device's GPS, an anti-phishing system, application locking, SMS and call filtering, and a security audit function.
During the trial period, you'll have to make do with ESET constantly offering a 70% discount offer for the premium service and probably more premium ads after that. But overall, the app is still technically ad-free and with a particularly appealing user interface.
ESET Mobile Security & Antivirus is a great option for those who want free Android AV protection from as reputable a source as possible.
4. Avira Antivirus Security.
Although it did not make it to our list of free AV products, Avira Antivirus Security 2018 does offer users the option of using the company's Android application for free. And with the quality and experience that Avira brings to the table, there's a good chance you'll choose this one as your first-choice free option, even if it's not in the top 10.
Why isn't Avira in the top 10? Mostly because other apps had more downloads, slightly better user ratings, smaller file sizes, and were updated a bit more recently during our test. That said, Avira could easily have made the top 20.
Avira's AV tool is among the best on the market for paid options, with a long list of quality features. Here's how it ranks according to our usual scoring criteria:
- User rating: 4.6 out of 5
- Downloads: Over 10 million
- # Number of customer reviews: 500,000+
- File size: 15.17 MB
- Additional features: Yes
- Developer country: Germany
- Last updated: January 2020
- Supported by advertising? Yes
- Premium version? Yes
Avira offers a free application heavily financed by advertising that provides an analysis tool, real-time protection, and a few useful functions. These include anti-theft, Identity Safeguard (which allows you to search a public list of data breaches for your email address), Call Blocker, and a Piracy Advisor that lets you know which apps on your device have limited security.
If you pay to upgrade to Avira, the company gives you camera protection to prevent camera hacking, microphone protection to prevent audio piracy, and web protection to protect your device while browsing the web. Avira also removes ads, regularly updates its antivirus database, and provides technical support to paying customers.
As for prices, here is what Avira offers:
- Cost: $11.99 (per year)
- Billing method: Subscription - annual
The price makes Avira one of the cheapest options on the market. You'll pay $11.99 per year for the service and additional features, or just $0.99 per month.
5. V3 Mobile Security.
With 5 million downloads, a 4.5 out of 5 rating and the AV-Test label, Ahn Labs has reason to be proud of its V3 Mobile Security application. Like several other options on our list of paid apps, V3 Mobile Security offers a free version that failed to make it into our top 10 free antivirus apps, but its paid version reached the right ratings to finish our top 5.
Based on the above, here are the details of this application and how it fits into our ranking criteria:
- User rating: 4.6 out of 5
- Downloads: Over 5 million
- # Number of customer reviews: 50,000+
- File size: 12.7 MB
- Additional features: Yes
- Developer country: South Korea
- Last updated: November 2019
- Supported by advertising? Yes
- Premium version? Yes
One of the best things about this app is the fact that it tells you Everything at What it needs to access on your device before you install it With the recent move toward more transparency in how services use your data, AhnLab was already ahead of the game. And indeed, many similar applications get these permissions without asking for them up front or in such an obvious way.
That said, V3 Mobile Security requires quite a bit of access. You must agree to give it permissions for the device administrator, device and app history, contacts, text messages, phone, camera, location, device ID, and call information, fingerprint sensor (if you have one), display on other apps (screen overlay), access to notifications, in-app purchases, and account information. That's 13 permissions that you need to grant it, in terms of actually every important section of your phone's operating system.
Immediately after downloading, you can do a malware scan. The application helps prevent smishing, adds privacy protections for applications and files, and has a memory optimizer. Apart from that, V3 Mobile Security includes a URL scanner to test suspicious links, a QR code scanner, a privacy advisor (checks the permissions of each application on your device), a privacy cleaner, a hidden gallery (for secret photos), a call blocker, a booster (to restore some processing power by removing unwanted processes), an app lock, Do Not Disturb (silences calls, the notifications and alarms (according to a schedule) and a weekly activity report.
What are you paying for these features? Nothing AhnLab offers all of this for free. However, since the application is ad-supported, the paid options only serve to get rid of ads.
Here is what AhnLab offers for its application:
- Cost: $0.99 (monthly) or $1.49 (one-time, 30 days)
- Billing method: Subscription - monthly or one-time
Is it worth the cost? Maybe not. It's one of the best paid apps out there, but you might not even need to pay to get it. Ads are almost non-existent, to begin with, and the app provides a quality experience for free.
FAQ - Best Android Antiviruses
How are free and paid antivirus applications evaluated?
To identify the top 10 free antivirus apps and the top 5 paid antivirus apps for Android, we looked at the following criteria:
- Number of installations (the more the better)
- Total user rating (out of 5)
- Number of customer reviews (very important!)
- Developer country (important details below)
- File size
- Date the software was last updated
- Additional features offered
- Use of ads
- Prices (paid applications only)
For any Android application, a large number of downloads means generally that not only does the application work, but that it has been effectively marketed through advertising And word of mouth. Other factors can result in a large number of users for a low-quality application, as some unscrupulous developers pay users to download the software and use paid reviews, so other criteria matter.
User ratings (out of 5) are extremely important, but they're even more so when you consider how many people actually left star ratings and written reviews. If an app has a 4.5 star rating, for example, and over 100 million downloads, but very few written reviews and ratings, that could indicate a fraudulent purchase of ratings by the app developer. The opposite is also true (a low score, but a large number of positive reviews).
File size is also important for any mobile device. While adding features other than antiviral analysis and monitoring is beneficial, accumulating features can make the app unsavory, especially if space is already limited on your Android device.
And while an app can be highly rated and downloaded a lot, it's also possible that a lot of people don't use it. Recent updates are important, not only to ensure that the application is functional, but also that it is still safe to use.
Additionally, we're looking at the location of the app developer. While we don't discriminate based on location, apps loaded with malware and spyware are more likely to come from countries where user privacy policies aren't strictly enforced. Since many antivirus tools are likely to collect and transfer personal data as part of monitoring your phone for threats, it is extremely important to ensure that the confidentiality of your data will be protected.
In fact, a 2014 AV-Comparatives report looked at the security concerns of AV tools, suggesting that consumers “only install products from reputable manufacturers and verify that the license agreement does not allow questionable practices such as allowing all user data to be collected.” The report warns against using free products because they are more likely to misuse user data.
To that end, apps from countries with strict data protection laws scored higher during our review.
Do I really need an antivirus for Android?
The simple answer is yes. But it's a bit more complicated than that.
Android is only partly trusty
Although Android devices are much more likely to be infected with viruses than iOS devices, the two operating systems are designed similarly. The way Android and iOS work makes it more difficult for a virus to take action on your device. Like iOS, Android is based on the Linux kernel and uses a process known as sandboxing to help protect the security of your system.
With sandboxing, each application is assigned its own location on your device's hard drive and cannot interact with other applications without the required permissions. In fact, every app you install should ask for permission to do just about anything. That's why you'll find that after installing an app on Android, it may ask for permission to access other parts of your phone, like the camera or the contact list.
Sandboxing makes Android inherently more secure than Windows, for example, but does not free the operating system from viruses or hacking. As with Windows, hackers tend to favor Android due to the high number of users, and so they are working to find ways to bypass security measures. Thus, many viruses can attack an Android device, either by infecting a single application and obtaining permissions, or by finding ways to bypass the sandboxing method.
(For information: Apple devices also use sandboxing, which is not waterproof, as many application developers have noticed and security researchers).
So, while the basic design of your Android prevents viruses from being effective to a certain extent, the number of Android users, combined with the security breaches that exist, make antivirus software for your Android device a real necessity.
