Top 3 Alternatives to Kaspersky Antivirus in 2024

1. TotalAV Antivirus

SecurityScore:

9.7 /10

View Packages

How We Review

Product Specs

Virus Detection	Yes
Malware Detection	Yes
Firewall	No
On-demand Scanning	Yes
On-access Scanning	Yes
Behavior-based monitoring	Yes

View Packages

What Makes TotalAV a Good Kaspersky Alternative?

It’s no secret that Kaspersky offers one of the most secure antivirus softwares on the market. TotalAV is another one of those ultra-secure antivirus providers — except without any controversies. They also cost a bit less, starting at $29 for the first year compared to $38.49 for a year of Kaspersky.

Antivirus Quality

TotalAV scored near-perfect marks on Windows and Android devices, and works better on those devices than it does on macOS and iOS devices. After tests with over 20,000 combined malware samples by AV-Test, TotalAV held the following detection rates:1

Now, those Windows and Android scores are slightly lower than Kaspersky since Kaspersky detected 100 percent of the malware samples. But remember, it’s 0.1 percent — you can’t get closer than that.

Company Reputation

The biggest issue we found while testing TotalAV was in its privacy policy. While it’s not as uncommon with antivirus software as it is with VPNs, TotalAV retains the right to collect your IP address and location data. But it still can’t identify where you are with those pieces of information. It can only get your whereabouts.

You’ll want to keep your IP address out of your VPN provider’s hands. Since your IP address is unique to your device, your browsing activities could become compromised by cross-checking between connections to the VPN servers and your IP address. And TotalAV has a VPN that follows the same privacy policy, which is why you won’t see it on our list of the best VPNs, even though it’s our favorite antivirus software.

2. Surfshark Antivirus

SecurityScore:

8.9 /10

View Plans

How We Review

Product Specs

Virus Detection	Yes
Malware Detection	Yes
Firewall	No
On-demand Scanning	Yes
On-access Scanning	Yes
Behavior-based monitoring	Yes

View Plans

What Makes Surfshark a Good Kaspersky Alternative?

If you plan to get a Kaspersky bundle that includes a VPN, Surfshark makes for a great alternative. Although its antivirus software doesn’t quite keep up with Kaspersky, its VPN is a lot better. We like having multihop as an option, which lets us further protect our internet traffic by sending our signal through two servers and two layers of encryption. You don’t get that option with Kaspersky. Surfshark has 1,000 more servers than Kaspersky, as well.

We prefer the combination of Surfshark’s VPN and antivirus software over Kaspersky’s VPN and antivirus software. But, if you only want antivirus software, Kaspersky, Norton, and TotalAV are better options.

Antivirus Quality

Surfshark is a VPN company first and foremost. But its antivirus software is nothing to scoff at either. It hasn’t been tested as many times as Kaspersky by AV-Test, but the time it was tested it received high marks. Here are the results from 2022:2

On top of its high rate of virus detection, Surfshark was easy to use. It didn’t slow down our computer at all while we ran real-time monitoring in the background, or during manual scans. When we ran real-time monitoring, we didn’t need to take any action immediately when it detected something. It quarantined the suspicious file and waited for us to review it instead of sending a pop-up that could’ve disrupted our workflow.

Company Reputation

While TotalAV takes your IP address and location data permanently, Surfshark takes it and then deletes it within 15 minutes, according to their privacy policy. (Well, it’s not just their privacy policy that says it; They got a third party audit from Deloitte, a $30 billion consulting company,3 that confirmed Surfshark follows its own policy.)

3. Norton Antivirus

SecurityScore:

9.5 /10

View Plans

How We Review

Product Specs

Virus Detection	Yes
Malware Detection	Yes
Firewall	Yes
On-demand Scanning	Yes
On-access Scanning	Yes
Behavior-based monitoring	Yes

View Plans

What Makes Norton a Good Kaspersky Alternative?

For comprehensive online protection, Norton is a solid choice. You can get all of the same services as you can with Kaspersky, with the addition of a password manager, parental controls, identity alerts, credit monitoring, and identity protection through LifeLock. It also matches Kaspersky’s impressive virus detection rate.

Antivirus Quality

Since Norton is a huge name in the antivirus industry, AV-Test regularly tests its malware detection capabilities. Most recently, there was a March and April test. As usual, Norton put up perfect scores. It’s been putting up perfect scores since 2020, so we can confidently say that Norton offers some of the best protection on the market. Here’s what Norton scored on its latest AV-Test:

While Norton is great at detecting malware, its desktop app got old quickly. Since Norton offers so many different services, the app has tons of windows within it. That means we had to switch windows constantly between turning our VPN on, then switch to another window to turn our antivirus on, and then another window for our credit monitoring.

Company Reputation

Norton comes with a bit of a checkered past as well. Except instead of foreign governments, Norton’s issues come in the form of unethical business practices. First, in 2012, Norton settled a class-action lawsuit that claimed Norton falsely identified malware to get customers to pay for antivirus software.

Then, in 2013, another class action lawsuit was brought forth related to double billing. Norton ended up paying out $10 million to customers who got billed twice. Finally, in 2018, Norton faced a final class action lawsuit related to the effectiveness of their antivirus software. After that, they seem to have changed their ways. Norton hasn’t had any marks against its reputation and has detected 100 percent of malware samples from AV-Test since 2012.