Updates: your subscription may include product, service and/or protection updates, and features that may be added, modified, or removed, subject to the acceptance of the License & Services Agreement. Overall, Norton has one of the best antivirus-bundled VPNs on the market. It’s not as good as a standalone VPN, but it provides encrypted web access across a variety of servers around the globe and has a strict no-logs policy, an easy-to-use interface, a kill switch, and unlimited browsing data. To sum up, then, most folks will be well-served by Norton AntiVirus Plus if they only want single device coverage, but Norton 360 Deluxe is a fantastic upgrade to get more from your Norton antivirus plan on a greater span of devices. With our lives being placed on social media and bank details saved for ease of shopping, it’s no wonder why threat actors hunt down potential victims to steal their identity. That’s where Norton 360 Platinum comes in.

I really like the automatic system cleanup functionality, which prevents my PC from getting bogged down with junk files. Utilities Ultimate also provides a Real-Time Boost feature which optimizes your CPU, RAM, and power usage in real time. Regardless, Norton is right to make its Virus Protection Promise, as it delivers near-perfect detection and protection scores. Norton 360 Platinum personal tests Updates: your subscription may include product, service and/or protection updates, and features that may be added, modified, or removed, subject to the acceptance of the License & Services Agreement. However, Norton Secure VPN’s connection speeds aren’t the best. Since VPNs route your internet connection through another server (sometimes around the world) and encrypt all of your data, this process is always going to cause some slowdown, no matter which VPN you use. But because all VPNs handle these tasks differently, all VPNs have different speeds. In my tests, Norton’s VPN wasn’t nearly as fast as some antivirus competitors like TotalAV or Bitdefender, but it wasn’t the slowest either. Norton 360 has so many features that I just don’t have the space to talk about them all. Here are some other notable features:The good news is that there’s an alternative to Norton’s desktop app— during my time with Norton 360, I found myself returning time and again to Norton’s online dashboard.

After executing a malicious file, Norton 360 immediately alerted me that it had detected a threat and removed it. There’s no option to move it to quarantine when alerted; Norton removes the malicious file from harming your device. That’s an efficient antivirus. Of course, this is a service you would hope not to use. But if you find yourself in a position where you have no idea what to do once identity theft has taken place, having a dedicated expert available throughout the week is always a big perk to have. VerdictNorton’s AntiVirus Plus plan offers excellent real-time and on-demand malware protection, plus a handful of extra features including: You can choose between 2 different user interfaces: My Norton and Classic. My Norton is the default interface — it’s pretty good, although I’m not sure why half of the window is dominated by an anonymous mountain climber. Keeping your online identity safe from threat actors looking to take over social media accounts, steal your identity and sell your personal information on the dark web. Norton 360 Premium is purely for those who have loads of bits of hardware and need that coverage limit of five devices upped to 10. For you, the extra expense will be worth paying. This doubles the level of device coverage to 10, which could be handy for those who have lots of hardware, or need to provide defenses for the devices of multiple family members. The amount of online storage is also increased to 75GB, but really, this plan is all about offering the maximum capacity for plentiful device coverage.

Norton’s malware scanner is one of the best around. It uses a massive malware directory, heuristic analysis, and machine learning to detect all types of threats and provide an excellent level of virus protection. It also offers a variety of virus scanning options plus real-time protection to keep malware from Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. Norton’s dark web monitoring scans for an impressive array of personally identifying information(PII), such as:

Norton’s full disk scan took about 40 minutes to complete on my PC, which is faster than most competitors (the average full scan time is 1 hour, though many brands take much longer). Norton also offers a variety of other scan options (which you can schedule to run at any time), such as: Norton 360 for Gamers (Windows only)— A special set of antivirus features for PC gamers (more info here). Norton 360 Platinum’s Dark Web Monitoring scans the dark web for registered personal information and if these details are found, you’ll get a notification and be the first to know. From there, you can change your details if needed to make sure you’re not popping up on any dark web markets. I really like that Norton’s phone support is available in dozens of different languages, including English, German, Dutch, Turkish, Mandarin, and Arabic. Some of these languages are only available for phone chat during regional business hours, but I was able to chat with a surprisingly large number of agents in different countries 24 hours a day. By comparison, competitors like Malwarebytes only offer support in a few languages.

Most antivirus software uses a malware directory, cross-referencing the code of each scanned file against thousands of known malware files, but Norton’s consistently ranks among the best on the market. Overall, Norton GO is a really good option for gamers, and it covers up to 3 Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. TRY NORTON NOW Norton 360 Advanced (only available in select countries)— Most Advanced International Plan The updater uses a database of more than 50 million malware-free drivers— all vetted using Norton’s antivirus. Avast uses a similar-sized database, but in my tests, Norton proved to be slightly faster than Avast when scanning for outdated drivers.You can also set access rules for every single program on your PC, as well as traffic rules for all of Windows’s built-in programs, like Network Discovery, File and Printer Sharing, and Remote Desktop Connection. However, most users will just want to let the firewall run on its defaults. Additionally, Norton provides a list of 136 uncommon protocols that can be used by malware to communicate between devices on a network. Norton’s firewall automatically monitors all of these protocols for suspicious activity and notifies users if they should disable any of these protocols due to a network-based malware threat. Furthermore, dark web monitoring is always active once you enter your information— the moment any of your data is discovered floating around the internet, Norton’s dark web monitoring team will give you a notification and instructions on how you can make the necessary changes to protect your identity and accounts. Norton’s parental controls are some of the very best on the market — Norton ranked as the #1 best antivirus with parental controls in 2023, and it’s currently one of the top standalone parental control apps. The parental controls are available for Windows, iOS, and Android.