VIPRE Antivirus Cost and Pricing Plans

Most antivirus software today relies on a subscription model instead of a flat fee to buy the software. And it makes sense. If you’ve read our guide to antivirus protection, you’ll know that antivirus software requires consistent support to keep up with current threats and maintain your online safety. So, most providers charge a monthly or annual fee to pay for this support instead of allowing you to buy the software outright. Well, today we’re going to focus on one provider that recently made the switch to all subscription-based pricing instead of their old lifetime licenses.

VIPRE, which is an acronym for Virtus Intrusion Protection and Remediation Engine, is one of the most popular software for antivirus, but what’ll it cost you? We focused on the bottom line not only on their antivirus software, but on everything you’ll need to protect your home devices from malware, ransomware, and other online threats. It turns out you can put a price on digital security, and on this page, we’ll prove that to be the case.

Pricing

In the past, VIPRE used to work a lot different from its competitors. They used to let you buy lifetime licenses of their software that came with updates for a few years until they released a major update. This was nice since it let you at least have some amount of protection forever, but once it lost support, you needed to buy another license anyway.

Nowadays, VIPRE works the same way as most antivirus software with annual subscription plans. We don’t see this switch as a bad thing though. It lets them release consistent updates that roll out to all of their customers no matter when they first bought VIPRE. This ensures you always receive their latest protections. We should note though that the renewal price you’ll pay for each subscription is the base price, not the sale price that you purchase your initial subscription for.

Antivirus

How does VIPRE differentiate itself from its competitors now? Well, their antivirus plans are straightforward and clear, ranging in cost from around $30 to $70. Again, considering these are one-time and not recurring fees, VIPRE will save you a lot of money in the long-term, so it’s a great choice for those that know they want antivirus protection for the long-haul.

• Android Security: For whatever reason, the antivirus software for Androids worked a little bit differently. Rather than buying individual subscriptions for one device, VIPRE offers one, three, five or 10 device subscriptions for one-time fees, which start at $9.99 for one Android device. Not too shabby!

Other Software

Aside from antivirus software and packages, VIPRE has a few services that you can choose from individually. If the software is a frozen yogurt shop, think of these products as different flavors and toppings that you can customize.

• Internet Shield VPN: Not to be confused with the similar-sounding VyprVPN, VIPRE’s Internet Shield VPN will hide your web activity and IP address for either one, two or three years. Unlike their antivirus subscriptions, there’s no way to buy a lifetime license to the VPN, unfortunately.

• Privacy Shield: Ever been paranoid that your computer’s camera or microphone is spying on you? Privacy Shield blocks hacking and it removes all personal information from your computer. Like the VPN, Privacy Shield isn’t a one-time fee but is available as a one, two or three-year subscription.

Canceling

One thing that we don’t love about VIPRE is its lack of money-back guarantees, which are usually a feature for antivirus companies. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get a refund, just that it’s not guaranteed for most products. The only products with a 30-day money-back guarantee are Antivirus Plus, Advanced Security, and Ultimate Security Bundle. To request a refund, you have a few options:

• Email customerservice@VIPRE.com
• Call 888-688-8457 between nine AM and six PM EST weekdays
• For users outside of the U.S, call 1-727-562-0101 and press extension 700

Free Trial

Now, even though they don’t have a money-back guarantee, we are okay with that because, for the Advanced Security, Android Security, and Antivirus Plus packages, plus the Privacy Shield, VIPRE gave us 30 days to try them out with paying. That should be more than enough time to cancel if we don’t like the service.

Favorite Features

To get all of the smallest details, you’ll want to read our full VIPRE review above, but for those that are short on time, here’s a summary of what we found during testing that we liked the best.

Squeaky Clean History

The world of antivirus software, we’ve learned, is surprisingly controversial. From security vulnerabilities that have exposed the data of thousands of customers to begrudged employees leaking business information, most of the software we look at has a past that’s more than a little messy. But that wasn’t the case for VIPRE, which may have something to do with the fact that they’ve only been in business under their current name for seven years, as opposed to decades-old companies like AVG and McAfee. Still, no leaks or lawsuits makes us trust VIPRE that much more.

100 Percent Malware Detection

You know how they say that nothing in life is every 100 percent? Well, technically that’s not true, as VIPRE detected 100 percent of all widespread malware as of August 2020. This was also the case the previous month, and we’re hoping it remained true in September and October, as well, although AV Labs hasn’t released this information yet.

30-Day Free Trial

It was nice to be able to try out VIPRE’s software for free for a month, especially because it wasn’t guaranteed that we could get a refund. For those concerned about the money, be sure to mark 30 days after your purchase date on your calendar so you’re alerted when the trial period ends!

One-Time Licenses

Editor’s Note: VIPRE no longer offers lifetime licenses. Any lifetime licenses you find online are sold by a third-party reseller of old licenses. We recommend staying away from these products since there’s no guarantee that the license you buy will actually work. Especially in this case since most of the ones available online are from 2016.

In 2020, you don’t just go to a store and buy things; rather, there seems to be a subscription service for everything under the sun, from entertainment options like Netflix to food delivery programs like Blue Apron, and even toothbrushes from Quip. While these subscriptions are super convenient, they can really add up. In 2019, for example, the average American spent $640 on these types of recurring subscriptions,1 which comes out to $53.33 a month. So the last thing we want is to add on to our monthly bills, which is why we really liked that VIPRE offers its antivirus programs for one-time license fees. While you may pay more up front than other antivirus software, depending on the service, you’ll save money in the long term with VIPRE.

Company Background

So just where exactly does VIPRE come from, exactly? Well, the company has only been in business as VIPRE since 2013, which is relatively short compared to veterans like Kaspersky or AVG. Based in Clearwater, Florida, VIPRE is a product of J2 Global which also produces brands like the VPNs IPVanish, StrongVPN and Encrypt.me. But it’s true past started long before 2013, in 1994 when it was originally founded as Sunbelt Software. 16 years later, in 2010, a company called GFI Software acquired Sunbelt2 before selling it to J2 Global in 2018.

Now, there is one thing that’s a bit shady about J2 Global, and that’s the fact that it owns PCMag.com, which reviews not only VPNs but also, you guessed it, antivirus software. And when we Googled it, sure enough we found a review of VIPRE antivirus on PCMag. This sounds like a pretty big conflict of interest to us, but don’t worry about it; Security.org is not owned by J2 Global, so you can trust that our reviews are legit.

Customer Support

Don’t be like a stereotypical Dad on a road trip, refusing to ask for directions. If you need help with anything VIPRE, here’s how you can contact support:

• Create a support ticket
• Do a search on their online support portal
• Business users can call 1-877-757-4094 Monday through Friday, nine AM until nine PM Eastern Standard Time.
• Home users can call 1-877-673-1161 Monday through Friday, nine AM until nine PM Eastern Standard Time.

Privacy Policy

Since VIPRE is based in the United States, a founding member of the surveillance alliance Five Eyes, we wanted to check to see what information of ours they keep. That’s because, under very specific circumstances, the company could be forced to give customer data to the U.S federal government. So, if that was the case, what would they have to give?

• Email
• Phone
• Public data from social media
• App data
• Site data
• Registration details
• Content and advertising information
• Third party information

We also looked into how they share this information with third parties, which includes legal authorities, any professional advisors they use like accountants, as well as advertisers that use their sites and apps. You may be able to opt out of such usage on your mobile device, or visit these two websites to opt out of advertising for certain companies in particular:

• http://www.networkadvertising.org
• http://networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp

Of course, we always want a company that logs the minimal amount of data possible and ideally doesn’t share this data with third parties, especially advertisers. But unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon for antivirus companies, so we can’t really knock VIPRE too hard for keeping up with the rest of the industry. Still, we wish that you could completely opt-out of this third-party sharing with all of their advertisers, not just some. If privacy is a huge concern of yours, VIPRE may not be the antivirus software for you.

Summary

We really appreciated the fact that VIPRE doesn’t conform when it comes to pricing, offering one-time licenses that’ll cost you a lot less in the short term. However, if these prices weren’t to your satisfaction, you may be interested in the best free antivirus software, but keep in mind that, as they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.