Total Defense Essential Anti-Virus – Review 2024
Every antivirus app must handle the core capabilities of removing existing malware infestations and defending against future attacks. Some stick with those core features, while others layer on so many bonuses that they resemble security suites. Total Defense Essential Anti-Virus, as the name suggests, sticks with the essentials. It doesn’t receive much attention from the independent testing labs, but it earned worthy scores in our hands-on tests. Even so, it can’t compete with our Editors’ Choice winners, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus and Norton AntiVirus Plus, both of which receive excellent lab scores and go way beyond the basics of antivirus protection.
How Much Does Total Defense Antivirus Cost?
Commercial antivirus utilities’ prices are most commonly just under $40 for a year of protecting one PC. A Total Defense subscription costs $49.99 per year, but that gets you three licenses. A three-device subscription for ESET or ZoneAlarm costs about the same. Three licenses for Bitdefender, Emsisoft, or Malwarebytes will run you $10 more. McAfee’s antivirus costs $64.99 per year, but with that subscription, you can install protection on every Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and ChromeOS device in your household.
Like Trend Micro, Total Defense doesn’t offer a broad range of pricing options. If you want more licenses, you upgrade, moving higher up the food chain. For example, you pay $79.99 for Total Defense Premium Internet Security if you want five licenses.
Need more than five? For $99.99 per year, you get 10 licenses to install Total Defense Ultimate Internet Security on your Windows, macOS, or Android devices. Most competitors charge more for 10 security suite licenses.
While not as well-known as McAfee, Norton, or ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, Total Defense matches these companies’ virus-free guarantees. If malware gets past the antivirus, Total Defense techs will remotely dig in to remove it….
