1: 360 Security
Price: Free / $5.49 per year
360 Security is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of its security stuff isn’t half bad and then the other half is quite bad. The app scans your apps for potential malware activity, although its find rate is a little bit higher than we’re willing to believe. Facebook is bad and all, but it’s not malware yet. In any case, this is a decent, super basic antivirus app that will do the scans and show you potential vulnerabilities. The app also features a bunch of phone booster and phone accelerator features. We recommend not using those at all because they are snake oil and they don’t actually work.
2: Avira
Price: Free / $11.99 per year
Avira is one of the newer antivirus apps comparatively speaking. It grew rather quickly over the last year. The app comes with the basics, including device scans, real-time protection, external SD card scans, and a lot more. Some other features include anti-theft support, privacy scanning, blacklisting, and even device admin features. It’s much lighter than apps like Norton and others. It’s also relatively inexpensive and there is a free version if you need something basic.
3: Avast Antivirus
Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $11.99 per year
Avast Mobile Security is one of the most popular antivirus apps on any platform. It boasts over 100 million downloads and tons of features. Some of the features include the classic antivirus scanning, an applock, call blocker, anti-theft support, a photo vault, and even a firewall for rooted Android devices. It also includes booster features, but we don’t recommend those. They do more harm than good and they can really mess things up with your phone. Avast’s subscription prices aren’t bad comparatively speaking. The app comes with a 14-day free trial to demo the product.
4: AVG Antivirus Free
Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $11.99 per year
AVG is another big name in the antivirus apps space. In fact, it’s basically the same as AVAST. AVAST actually purchased AVG back in 2016. Thus, the experience is similar in both antivirus apps. You can scan your phone and find potential vulnerabilities in much the same way. Theis app has anti-theft tracking via Google Maps, but it doesn’t have the rooted firewall availability like AVAST does. Thus, they are different enough to be different products. Please beware of the phone accelerator features because they don’t work as usual. We don’t know why antivirus apps keeping stuffing garbage like that in apps. In any case, it runs for $2.99 per month or $11.99 per year.
5: Bitdefender Free Antivirus
Price: Free
Bitdefender Antivirus is one of the few actually free antivirus apps. It hasn’t changed much over the years. It offers a basic scanning feature, a simple interface, quick performance, and no configuration. This is a great one for super basic needs. All it really does is scan stuff and then sit there and wait to scan stuff again. There is a larger, more in-depth Bitdefender app. However, we think this one is better for those who just want something simple. It’s also actually free with no in-app purchases or subscriptions. There is advertising, though.
ESET Mobile Security and Antivirus
Price: Free / $1.99 per month / $14.99 per year
ESET is another big name in the antivirus and anti-malware world. It has a decent set of features, including scans, anti-theft support, a security auditor feature, scan scheduling, and more. The setup process is a bit intrusive. It’s one of the few that require an email address. Otherwise, it works pretty well. You get a free one month trial upon installation. From there, it goes for $1.99 per month or $14.99 per year. It’s not quite has heavy as something as AVAST or AVG, but it is heavier than CM Security Lite or Bitdefender. Take that info for what it’s worth.
Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus
Price: Free / $14.95 per year
Kaspersky is one of the most popular antivirus apps. It has both a free and pro version. Both versions offer SMS and call blocking, scans, virus updates, and anti-theft. The premium version adds things like real-time protection, an applock, and more. Of course, both versions have device scanning for malware and stuff like that. It isn’t nearly as heavy as the biggest antivirus apps. Plus, it doesn’t have any nasty booster features that don’t work. It’s nice to see an antivirus app that doubles down on its purpose instead of trying to stretch out to stuff that doesn’t make sense. That makes it a decent middle-of-the-road option for a lot of folks. The premium version goes for $14.95 per year.
Lookout Security & Antivirus
Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $29.99 per year
Lookout is another popular antivirus and anti-malware app. It comes pre-installed on many devices, especially on carriers like T-Mobile. It does the basics fairly well. That includes scans, phishing protection, malware protection, anti-theft features, and more. It also comes with some unique stuff like identity protection, identity insurance, and WiFi scanning. That gives it a bit of a different perspective than most antivirus apps. It goes for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. It’s reasonably good for an antivirus or anti-malware app.
Malwarebytes Security
Price: Free / $1.49 per month / $11.99 per year
Malwarebytes is one of the most popular antivirus apps on Windows. The mobile version is pretty good too. It features an aggressively updated virus database, support for malware and ransomware, a permission tracker, and more. It can even scan messages in WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS, etc for potentially dangerous links. Of course, it does the usual stuff like scanning as well. The app looks nice, works well, and it’s not too heavy like others. It’s also reasonably priced at $1.49 per month or $11.99 per year.
McAfee Mobile Security
Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $29.99 per year
McAfee is one of the biggest names in antivirus apps. It’s also one of the heaviest. The app includes scanning, anti-theft, anti-spyware, and security locking features. Additionally, it can take photos of your potential phone thief, record locations to the cloud before the phone shuts down, and more useful stuff. McAfee also has a variety of standalone apps for other things. The UI is old and it doesn’t look very good. Additionally, it has boost features that don’t work and it requires an account creation to go pro. The antivirus portion of the app does work rather well and some of the tertiary features are nice. However, it’s still one of the weaker options in our top 15.
Norton Mobile Security
Price: Free / $14.99-$39.99 per year
Norton Security has its ups and downs. Just imagine how much worse it gets if we put this one here. The app has a lot of the basic features though, including protection from malware, spyware, and other bad stuff. Additional features include saving device location when the battery is low, real-time protection, anti-theft features, and more. It’s one of the pricier options in antivirus apps. However, it does have a suite available for $39.99 per year that covers your mobile device as well as your computer. Norton also has other apps, like a dedicated applock app, that are actually not half bad.
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