A total of 22 products were evaluated this month

Oct 19, 2020 14:37 GMT  ·  By

Choosing the best Internet security suite for Windows 10 isn’t by any means easy business, and it’s all because pretty much every vendor out there claims they offer the best protection available right now.
 

Fortunately, the experts over at AV-TEST have conducted new research on a total of 22 security packages for Windows 10 in July and August, thus trying to help us determine what product we should install on our devices.

Just like before, all tested security suites were evaluated for protection, performance, and usability, with a maximum score of 6 points per each test. Overall, each product could reach a maximum score of 18 points.

The results are surprising, to say the least. And I’m saying it a good way, as out of the 22 tested products, only 6 of them actually failed to receive the AV-TEST certification.

No less than 8 Internet security suites received the maximum score of 18 points after being awarded with 6 points for protection, performance, and usability:  

AV-TEST's latest research on Windows 10

The remaining products that receive the AV-TEST certification scored 17.5 points overall, so they were pretty close to top-notch performance anyway.

“To be sure, even this test performed over a period of two months is only a snapshot in time. But it does demonstrate the high performance of many security solutions under Windows 10 for consumer users. The highest point score of 18 was achieved by a total of 8 products, whereas 8 additional packages earned the excellent score of 17.5 points. This means that 16 out of the 22 security packages tested also earned recognition as a TOP PRODUCT, in addition to a certificate for their security. Interesting to note: Even Windows Defender Antivirus completed this test with 18 points. Looking back at the test history of the past 12 months, however, this tended to be the exception rather than the rule,” AV-TEST explains.

“Many of the security packages and Internet security suites recognized offer lots of useful extra features, in addition to a high degree of security and reliability. Thus, when comparing packages with equal point scores, it is useful to look at their full range of features.”

When it comes to the products that disappointed in this new research, worth mentioning are the three worst scorers.

First of all, it’s Malwarebytes Premium, which scored only 5.5 points for protection, 4.5 points for performance, and 4.5 points for usability. This means Malwarebytes earned a total of 14.5 points, not enough to receive the certification and thus be considered a top product.

At the same time, the PC Matic suite from the vendor with the same name left a lot to be desired, with only 3 points received for the protection offered during the research. On the other hand, it reached a score of 6 points for performance and 4.5 points for usability, but this only brought the final score to 13.5 points. Obviously, it hasn’t received the organization’s certification.

And the last in the charts this time is the Smart Antivirus from a vendor called Cylance. This security product received only 12 points in the test after getting just 2.5 points for the protection that it offered during the testing. As far as usability goes, it received 3.5 points, the lowest score out of all 22 products that were included in the research.

The only good news for Cylance users is that the application received the maximum of 6 points for its performance on Windows 10.

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AV-TEST's latest research on Windows 10
AV-TEST's latest research on Windows 10
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