Best Antivirus With VPN Bundles 2024
Our digital security experts found the best antivirus with VPN bundles to protect your devices and privacy.
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Last Updated on Aug 13, 2024
We get it. You already have more subscriptions than you can count and the last thing you want to do is add two more for an antivirus software to protect your devices and a VPN to protect your online privacy. Well, we can help you cut that down to just one subscription. It’ll save you some money, too.
Over the last year, we tested over 40 different antivirus software programs and VPNs. And we’ll be the first to tell you that we had mixed results. There were plenty of duds and standout providers. A few of our favorites offer antivirus and VPN bundles for a lot less than buying each service individually. You don’t need to sacrifice the quality of your VPN or antivirus software, either. Let’s dig in.
Comparing the Best Antivirus With VPNs Side by Side
| System |
Surfshark Antivirus
|
TotalAV Antivirus
|
NordVPN Antivirus
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Ratings | 8.9/10 | 9.7/10 | 9.7/10 |
| Servers | 3,200+ | 100+ | 6,400+ |
| Server locations | 100 countries | 50+ countries | 111 countries |
| VPN protocols | WireGuard, IKEv2 | OpenVPN, IKEv2 | OpenVPN, NordLynx, IKEv2 |
| Read VPN review | Surfshark VPN Review | TotalVPN Review | NordVPN Review |
| Read Review | Surfshark Antivirus Review | TotalAV Antivirus Review |
Comparing the Best Antivirus With VPNs Side by Side
- Surfshark Antivirus - Best Well-Rounded Bundle
- TotalAV Antivirus - Best Antivirus Software
- NordVPN Antivirus - Best for Online Protection
What are the Best Antivirus with VPNs?
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1. Surfshark Antivirus - Best Well-Rounded Bundle
View Plans Links to Surfshark AntivirusProduct Specs
Virus Detection Yes Malware Detection Yes Firewall No On-demand Scanning Yes On-access Scanning Yes Behavior-based monitoring Yes
Surfshark Overview
When we first tested Surfshark, they only offered a VPN subscription. The new Starter, One, and One+ plans are a new phase for Surfshark. And in our opinion, their new services meet the standard they set with their VPN. Between the three plans, there’s an option for any amount of coverage you want.
The One+ plan even includes active removal of your data from people search sites and data brokers with Incogni. See what we thought of this unique service in our Incogni review. To summarize, it lived up to the Surfshark quality we’ve come to expect.
Surfshark One Antivirus Main Page Antivirus With VPN Bundles
Since we wanted to test the antivirus software, the VPN, and Incogni, we went with Surfshark One+ for its full suite of services. If you only want the antivirus software and VPN, you can go with Surfshark One. Here’s an overview of Surfshark’s plans that include both antivirus software and a VPN:
Features Surfshark One Surfshark One+ VPN Yes Yes Ad blocker Yes Yes Credit card and identity alerts Yes Yes Antivirus protection Yes Yes Webcam protection Yes Yes Data removal from people search sites and data brokers No Yes Price for one month $15.95 $17.95 Price for one year $50.85 ($3.39 per month) $76.35 ($5.09 per month) Price for two years $72.63 ($2.69 per month) $115.83 ($4.29 per month) You can also buy the VPN on its own with Surfshark Starter, which starts at $2.19 per month for the two-year plan. Surfshark does not offer its antivirus as a stand-alone product.
VPN Quality
While it’s not quite at the top of our list of the best VPNs (Surfshark it ranks second overall), it has its unique advantages. For instance, Surfshark’s iOS app offers native widget support, meaning we didn’t need to open up the app every time we wanted to turn on the VPN. It was right there on the home screen of our iPhone.
Where it lost the 0.2 points that make the difference between Surfshark and NordVPN is in its privacy policy. Surfshark logged our IP addresses while we were connected to the VPN. It’s not as bad as it sounds, though. They delete your IP address within 15 minutes of your session ending.
FYI: We didn’t initially trust Surfshark’s privacy policy. Normally, the fact that they collect our IP address would be enough for us not to use them. But they regularly get the implementation of their privacy policy audited by a third-party. That means another company confirmed that Surfshark deletes IP addresses within 15 minutes.
Surfshark offers one of our favorite features: obfuscated servers. Obfuscated servers let us get past streaming services that block the use of VPNs so we can still watch U.K. Netflix in the U.S.
Surfshark connected to New York Antivirus Quality
When Surfshark first announced its antivirus software, we had our doubts. We’ve seen it too many times before — a VPN releases an antivirus software to offer a higher-priced tier but it’s nowhere near industry standard. Still, we put it to the test and we’re glad we did, because Surfshark outdid themselves with their antivirus software. It competes with industry giants like Norton in terms of both the protection it offers and the user experience.
We liked how we could still schedule full system scans once a week in the middle of the night to minimize their disruption. It was also lightweight on our system, meaning even our old Acer Aspire could run it without an issue. But we wish Surfshark included a firewall and parental controls to complete its device protection packages.
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2. TotalAV Antivirus - Best Antivirus Software
View Packages Links to TotalAV AntivirusProduct Specs
Virus Detection Yes Malware Detection Yes Firewall No On-demand Scanning Yes On-access Scanning Yes Behavior-based monitoring Yes
TotalAV Overview
In contrast to Surfshark, TotalAV started as an antivirus company and later released a VPN called TotalVPN. We’ll rip the Band-Aid off though. Its VPN isn’t quite as good as Surfshark’s VPN. That’s not to say it’s bad. We’re not under any illusion that it’s an industry leader, but it ticks enough boxes to get the job done.
If you want the best antivirus software on the market and only need the basic capabilities of a VPN, like hiding your browsing activity and spoofing your IP address, TotalAV delivers.
TotalAv user interface Antivirus With VPN Bundles
Just like Surfshark, TotalAV also offers three different tiers, but its basic tier comes with antivirus software instead of a VPN. You can still get TotalVPN on its own. We went with TotalAV Internet Security since we didn’t think the password manager was worth the extra ten dollars.
Here’s an overview of TotalAV’s plans that include antivirus software and a VPN:
Features TotalAV Internet Security TotalAV Total Security Antivirus protection Yes Yes Device tuneup tools Yes Yes Disk cleaner Yes Yes Ad blocker Yes Yes TotalVPN Yes Yes Total Password No Yes Introductory price $39 for one year $49 for one year Renewal price $129 per year $149 per year Tip: Take note of the renewal price. Like a lot of antivirus companies, TotalAV offers a low introductory price but raises the renewal price. Make sure to factor that in when budgeting for your VPN and antivirus bundle.
VPN Quality
Here’s how TotalAV’s app looks on a laptop, smartphone, and tablet. Like we said, TotalVPN doesn’t live up to the standard of TotalAV. Most importantly, it uses the same privacy policy as TotalAV. That might seem like a good thing, but after we reviewed TotalAV’s privacy policy, we realized that it allows them to collect device identifiers. That’s not a big deal for antivirus software. But, when the goal of a VPN is to keep your browsing anonymous, the collection of device identifiers can compromise that goal. That’s why we liked Surfshark’s VPN better when we did our TotalVPN vs. Surfshark showdown.
TotalVPN is still better than average, though. With servers in over 50 locations, odds are you can spoof your IP address to the country you want. We mostly use our VPN for streaming and we never ran into an issue connecting to the country we wanted while using TotalVPN. It also uses OpenVPN, which is our favorite VPN protocol.
Did You Know: VPNs keep your browsing activity anonymous by encrypting the data you send and receive. TotalVPN does not specify the encryption standard they use, but since they use the OpenVPN protocol, we assume they use AES 128 or 256 encryption. The U.S. government uses both of these standards, so either way, we felt security with TotalVPN.
We don’t think TotalVPN is worth it on its own, but for an extra $10 per year when bundled with TotalAV, it’ll get the job done.
Antivirus Quality
This is where TotalAV shines. It’s our favorite antivirus software, and for good reason. We got the best malware protection with TotalAV out of the over 40 antivirus software programs we tested. While it’s good at identifying malware, every antivirus software we recommend meets that standard.
TotalAV stands out for its ease of use and minimal impact on our computer. We could run it in the background at all times without annoying alerts that caused us to turn other antivirus protections off. Its interface is also easy to navigate, so we felt we had full control over the protection we received.
But our favorite detail? Real-time protection. We didn’t need to run scans all the time to keep our devices malware-free. Rather, TotalAV quickly scanned every file and program we accessed in real-time to detect if they contained malware or any malicious code. It had minimal impact on our device’s performance, too. Programs took a couple of seconds longer than normal to launch, but that’s a compromise we’re willing to make in exchange for malware protection.
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3. NordVPN Antivirus - Best for Online Protection
View Packages Links to NordVPN AntivirusProduct Specs
Multihop Yes Obfuscated servers Yes Kill switch Yes Split tunneling Yes Netflix Yes Torrenting Yes
NordVPN Overview
Whether you trust your device’s built-in protections or already have a preferred device protection software, NordVPN skips the device protections and instead focuses its protections on online threats. You might be wondering why NordVPN is on this list. It doesn’t have any actual antivirus software. But it does have strong and unique online protections that make it a worthwhile consideration. We’ll cover these protections in the antivirus quality section.
NordVPN desktop app connected to a Paris, France server Antivirus With VPN Bundles
We just finished saying that NordVPN doesn’t offer antivirus software. Its online protections aren’t included in every plan, though. Here’s an overview of NordVPN’s plans with online protection:
Features Plus Complete Devices supported 10 simultaneous connections 10 simultaneous connections NordVPN Yes Yes Malware detection Yes Yes Browsing protection Yes Yes Password manager Yes Yes Data breach scanner Yes Yes 1 TB cloud storage No Yes Identity theft coverage None $1 million in coverage Cyber extortion protection None $100,000 in coverage Price for one month $13.99 $15.99 Price for one year $71.88 ($5.99 per month) $95.88 ($7.99 per month) Price for two years $105.36 ($4.39 per month) $153.36 ($6.39 per month) It might seem weird that NordVPN offers identity theft protection but not a full antivirus software. Most devices these days have pretty good built-in antivirus software and NordVPN knows that. So they try to protect users from incoming online threats and offer coverage for the consequences of malware, like identity theft.
VPN Quality
NordVPN with the Firefox extension connected to Singapore while viewing Netflix NordVPN gave us all of the features we look for when testing VPNs. They kept our browsing private in every way we look for in a VPN, with everything from a no-logs privacy policy to shared IP addresses. A no-logs privacy policy means NordVPN doesn’t store any device identifiers when we connect to its VPN. With shared IP addresses, multiple people get the same IP address, giving you more anonymity.
Pro Tip: We recommend testing your VPN when you connect to it. You can test for WebRTC and DNS leaks to ensure your browsing stays private while connected. WebRTC and DNS leaks mean your VPN didn’t hide your IP address or encrypt your browsing.
On top of great protection, it also makes high-quality apps for all supported platforms. That makes it easy to use and understand when you’re connected to NordVPN’s encrypted servers. The main drawback of NordVPN is its 10 device limit. But that’s on simultaneous connections, meaning you can’t have 10 devices connected to NordVPN at once. You can still log in to your account on more than 10 devices.
Antivirus Quality
When it comes to antivirus protections, NordVPN does not include any software that scans your computer for malware. Instead of scanning your computer, NordVPN scans every file you download. It also checks for known security weaknesses. Most antivirus software does that. What makes NordVPN unique is its browser protections. They help identify fraudulent websites with nefarious intentions and warn you before you visit them. That’s what makes NordVPN best for online protection.
Is My Device’s Built-In Antivirus Software Enough?
In most cases, we recommend additional antivirus software. While built-in software like Microsoft Defender do a good job at scanning your device and identifying malware through custom scans, they don’t offer comprehensive protection.
High-quality, paid antivirus software comes with additional protections, such as:
- Endpoint Protections: All of the devices connected to your Wi-Fi are on a network. Most home networks do not have protections against internal threats since they expect the devices you let on your Wi-Fi are secure. Paid antivirus software adds protections from threats within your own network.
- Automated Remediation: Instead of only notifying you of potential threats, paid antivirus software takes immediate action to protect your devices by quarantining threats.
- System Performance: Most malware shows itself by impacting the performance of your device. Paid antivirus software monitors your device’s performance to identify suspicious changes that could indicate an infection.
Do Antivirus Providers Make Good VPNs?
More often than not, we find that antivirus providers make low-quality VPNs and sell them in a bundle with their antivirus protections. These providers prey on people who did their research on their antivirus software and assume the VPN is good, too. But not all of them do this. You just need to keep your eye out. TotalAV is one provider that makes excellent antivirus software with a decent VPN.
On the other side of the coin, VPN providers also tend to make their own antivirus protections and offer both in a bundle. And most of them tend to disappoint, too. Surfshark is one standout that created an antivirus software that passed our expectations. NordVPN took a different route and only focused on its specialty — online security. We found that approach worked out well when we tested it.
Final Thoughts
We love saving money by bundling. It makes shopping easier, since we only need to deal with one provider, and the bundled products typically work well together. That’s why bundling antivirus software with a VPN makes sense. Having those two services work well together can help keep you protected and anonymous.
After testing over 40 antivirus software and VPNs, some of which made us feel like we bought a bottle of snake oil, our favorite bundles were from Surfshark, TotalAV, and NordVPN.
For the best of both worlds, we like Surfshark’s balanced approach. They have a solid VPN and antivirus software. TotalAV’s antivirus software is better, but its VPN left a lot more to be desired than Surfshark’s antivirus software. NordVPN focuses all of its efforts on online protections and it shows.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Best Antivirus With VPN Bundles
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What’s the best antivirus with VPN bundle?
Based on the results of hands-on tests with over 40 antivirus software programs and VPNs, our favorite antivirus and VPN bundles are:
- Surfshark — Best Well-Rounded Bundle
- TotalAV — Best Antivirus Software
- NordVPN — Best for Online Protection
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Should I bundle my antivirus and VPN subscription?
Yes, we recommend bundling your antivirus and VPN subscription. It makes managing both services easier. Most bundled subscriptions put both services into a single app. We like this since it keeps our desktop clean and our notifications easier to manage. To up our security, we make it a habit to check any antivirus alerts every time we turn our VPN on or off.
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Do I need antivirus software if I have a VPN?
A VPN is not antivirus software. A VPN protects you from online privacy threats, while antivirus software protects you from malware. You need both for complete digital security.
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Can I download a virus while using a VPN?
VPNs don’t scan the files you download, so you can still download a virus while connected to a VPN. NordVPN offers bundled online protections that scan every file you download for malware. It also identifies suspicious websites.
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Is NordVPN’s anti-malware protection an antivirus software?
No, NordVPN’s anti-malware protection is not a complete antivirus software. It cannot scan your device for malware, but it can stop you or your devices from downloading malicious files and malware.
Statista. (2024). Market share of mobile operating systems worldwide from 2009 to 2023, by quarter.
statista.com/statistics/272698/global-market-share-held-by-mobile-operating-systems-since-2009/Statista. (2020). Development of Android malware worldwide 2016-2020. statista.com/statistics/680705/global-android-malware-volume/
Statista. (2020). Smartphone OS by age group in 2019.
statista.com/statistics/1133193/smartphone-os-by-agePew Research Center. (2017). A third of Americans live in a household with three or more smartphones.
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/25/a-third-of-americans-live-in-a-household-with-three-or-more-smartphones