One of the world's largest web hosting providers, Bluehost has almost two decades of experience in helping users build a quality home on the web.

Bluehost is now owned by Newfold Digital (previously Endurance International Group), the company also behind major hosting names like HostGator, iPage, Domain.com and Web.com.

Bluehost has a real depth of knowledge which goes way beyond most competitors. The company doesn't just know how to install WordPress and launch the dashboard, for instance. It has developers working on the platform full-time, and has been directly recommended by WordPress.org since 2005.

It's a mix which has earned Bluehost major success. Datanyze' Web Hosting Share report places the company in 6th place amongst business users. Only hosting giants such as GoDaddy, Amazon and Google scored higher. 

What types of hosting does Bluehost offer? 

Bluehost offers low-cost shared hosting, ideal for first-timers and personal or small business sites. 

A wide range of WordPress hosting plans could work for anything from a simple personal blog, to a feature-packed business-critical site or a leading-edge web store.

Bluehost's dedicated and VPS hosting give you a far more powerful hosting environment, delivering the maximum possible speed for the most demanding projects.

The company also offers a very full range of add-on products and services: website design, domain registration, email hosting, premium support and more.

Next, we'll break down these various ranges, look at what they offer, and explore which hosting plans are best for different types of sites.

Share hosting

Opt for a shared hosting plan and your website is stored on a server which also hosts many other accounts. This scheme saves money, because the cost of the server is shared between many users. But it also reduces performance, because the server's resources - the processor, the RAM, the network connection - are also shared by all the accounts.

Bluehost's shared range is priced from $2.95 a month on the annual plan ($9.99 on renewal). This supports a single site and a lower than average 10GB storage, but the feature list scores free domain, free SSL, free CDN (Content Delivery Network), automated WordPress installation, a bundled website builder, and 24/7 support via live chat and telephone.

Upgrading to the other shared plans adds resources to improve speeds, and throws in some valuable extras. The top Pro plan ($13.95 a month billed annually, $28.99 on renewal) includes 100GB storage, supports unlimited websites, adds automated backups, domain privacy and a dedicated IP.

Whatever you choose, Bluehost offers top quality management tools. A well-designed custom control panel organizes account and hosting features, Softaculous reliably installs WordPress in barely a minute, and cPanel helps create email accounts, organize files, work with domains and more.

These are capable products, easy to manage, faster than most (more on that later) and powerful enough to handle many personal and small business sites.

But the plans are also more expensive than some, once the introductory deals end. The cheapest plans don't offer backups, and there are potential extra costs elsewhere. A free domain sounds great, for instance, but Bluehost’s above-average annual renewal fees ($18.99 for .com, $27.99 for .co.uk, vs. $13.98 and $9.98 at Namecheap, for instance) mean you may pay more over time.

If it's important to make savings, consider Hostinger. The company's Premium shared hosting plan is priced similarly to Bluehost's cheapest plans, at $2.99 a month on the annual plan, $11.99 on renewal. It can't quite match Bluehost for management tools (no cPanel, no Softaculous), although its own control panels are still better than most. But it scores in other areas, with weekly backups, 100GB storage and support for 100 websites, and our performance tests found Hostinger and Bluehost deliver very similar speeds.

WordPress hosting

WordPress is the world's leading website creation platform. It's not difficult for home users to learn, yet is also powerful enough to build and run powerful business sites, huge web stores and more.

Bluehost's $2.75 a month shared hosting plan can automatically install WordPress, and is fine if you just want to find out how the platform works. But it doesn't have many specialist WordPress features, and you can get similar plans from other hosts for less.

Bluehost's WP Pro range (from $19.95 a month over three years) extends your WordPress possibilities with premium themes to give your site a facelift, a staging environment for safer testing of website changes, and automatic WordPress updates. 

Additional hosting features include unlimited storage, support for unlimited sites, malware detection and daily scheduled backups. 

Business-friendly extras include marketing tools, site traffic analytics and SEO guidance, while the best plans include PayPal integration and a high-speed search tool.

This is a nicely-judged mix of features, with plenty of appeal for the target small business audience. But if you're looking to save money, and don't need Bluehost's business tools, HostGator's managed WordPress tools include free migration, domain, backups and malware scanning, and are priced from $5.95 a month on the three-year plan ($9.95 on renewal.)

Elsewhere, IONOS scores for its array of WordPress plans. Casual users can have a surprisingly capable plan for $0.50 a month in year one ($8 on renewal); at the top of the range, the $120 Agency plan offers speedy VPS hosting for up to ten demanding business sites, and there are plenty of mid-range options in between.

VPS hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is a scheme where a physical server is divided up into individual server environments. There are far fewer accounts on a server than you'll see with shared hosting, and your VPS doesn't have to share its resources with other sites. That's a real performance plus, and while some shared hosting plans might struggle with 10,000 visitors a month, a good VPS can usually handle hundreds of thousands. 

Bluehost has three VPS plans. The simplest gives you 2 CPU cores, 2GB RAM, 30GB storage, 1TB bandwidth and a cPanel/WHM license for $19.99 a month over three years, $29.99 on renewal. At the top of the range, a 4 core, 8GB RAM, 120GB storage and 3TB bandwidth setup is priced at $59.99 a month over three years, $119.99 on renewal.

There's nothing wrong with these systems, and we found that they deliver decent performance for most small and mid-range sites. But three plans doesn’t give you a lot of choice. 

On CPU cores, for instance (a measure of processor power), some providers have VPS plans ranging from one to 24 or even 32 cores. Bluehost’s two to four core plans will work for some, but there’s no way it can begin to satisfy everyone (and there are no ways to reconfigure the plans to suit more demanding users, either.)

IONOS' VPS plans are mostly for experienced users who know what they're doing, but they’re built to address a far wider audience than Bluehost. Prices range from a very basic 1 core, 512MB server for $2 billed monthly, up to an 8 core, 24GB RAM setup from only $24 a month for the first six months, $45 on renewal. 

But if you're not sure what you want, check out Hostwinds. VPS plans range from $4.99 a month for a 1 core, 1GB setup, to $395.24 for a hugely powerful 16 core, 96GB system with the power to run almost everything. Windows hosting is available if you need it, and most plans have some customization options to help ensure they suit your needs.

Dedicated hosting

Selecting a dedicated hosting package gets you the maximum resources and control: an entire web server, for your use only. No more sharing, no more unexpected slowdowns because another user's site is busy, just consistent high speeds, day and night.

Bluehost has a tiny range of only three dedicated hosting plans. They're very similar, too. 

The Starter plan features a 4 core, 2.3GHz CPU, 4GB RAM, 2x500GB storage and 5TB bandwidth/month server for $79.99 a month over three years ($119.99 on renewal). 

The high-end Premium plan has a 4 core, 3.3GHz CPU, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB storage and 15TB bandwidth/month setup for $119.99 a month over three years ($209.99 on renewal.)

These plans are fairly priced, and should provide decent performance for your latest high-powered, speed-critical web projects. But as with the VPS range, they only cover a very small part of the market, and there many other needs Bluehost doesn't address.

IONOS has budget dedicated servers for experienced users from under $50, for instance.

Liquid Web's dedicated range is all about features and power. Its cheapest dedicated server (from $169 a month) is more capable than Bluehost's best, and these go up to dual CPU, 32-core, 64GB RAM monsters that can handle the most demanding of web tasks.

Alternatively, consider InMotion Hosting. It's a little more expensive than Bluehost, but has more plans, managed and unmanaged options, flexible billing (1, 3, 6, 12 months) and more, just some of the reasons it's top of the list in our Best Dedicated Hosting guide.

Does Bluehost have a website builder?

Bluehost offers a low cost WordPress website builder, with plans covering everything from small personal blogs to medium-sized business sites and even some capable web stores.

The reasonably-priced starter plan ($2.95 a month in year one, $10.99 on renewal) includes 300+ templates, prebuilt designs for various industries and site types, and a drag-and-drop editor to easily add pictures, text, videos, forms and other blocks to your page.

The plan doesn't include backups, and adding them bumps up the price by $2.99 a month. But there's a bonus in support for hosting unlimited websites (many budget WordPress plans limit you to one).

Worthwhile business-friendly extras include contact forms, social media sharing, and social review integration (show Google, Yelp and other customer reviews of your business directly on the site). Expert-level editing options include CSS editing, a powerful way to customize the site and make it suit your precise needs.

A couple of higher plans include a web store and various e-commerce options, and are priced from $9.95 to $12.95 in year one, $14.99 to $24.95 on renewal.

Bluehost's website builder is probably overkill if you're just looking for an easy way to create a simple family site. But if you're building something for a business, or you'd like more configuration and editing options, it's an appealing choice. 

HostGator's Gator website builder is also worth considering for its ease of use, and the support for a tiny web store in even the cheapest plan. Alternatively, if it's power you're after, try Wix. It has more templates, more features, just more of everything, and you can try it for free, no credit card required.

Can you build a web store with Bluehost?

The Bluehost website builder offers a simple and low-cost route to building a web store, as we've discussed above.

The company also has a couple of WooCommerce hosting plans with even more features. (WooCommerce is a powerful WordPress plugin which gives access to every ecommerce feature you're ever likely to need.)

The Standard plan gets you payment processing and unlimited products for a reasonable $12.95 a month in year one, $24.95 on renewal.

Bluehost's Premium plan is the highlight here. Spending $24.95 a month ($39.95 on renewal) adds more product listing options, allows customers to make reservations or appointments, adds support for selling subscriptions, automatically calculates sales tax by country, and more. There's also a 'Plugin Bundle', which Bluehost says 'includes access to over $200 in top WooCommerce plugins.'

If you're a Bluehost fan (or a current customer), its WooCommerce plans provide a capable way to build a quality web store. But otherwise, there's not much here to justify choosing these plans ahead of other provider's WooCommerce hosting.

Consider InMotion Hosting for a wider range of WooCommerce plans, with more features and performance-boosting tweaks. A2 Hosting goes further, with optimized Magento and OpenCart software. But as we mentioned above, if you're just learning the basics, HostGator's Gator website builder supports a 3-product web store from $3.84 a month.

How fast is Bluehost? 

Performance matters in web hosting, even for the cheapest of plans. A slow site, regularly down, could be worse than having no website at all.

We measure uptime by first creating a test WordPress site on a shared hosting plan, then using the monitoring service Uptime.com to access it every five minutes for 14 days and log what happens.

Bluehost managed a perfect 100% uptime. We expect that for a short test, but it doesn't always happen: four of our last 15 providers had some downtime during the monitoring period.

We check website performance by using GTmetrix to load a test WordPress page, then measure how long it takes to load the main content of a page (a figure known as Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP). A low LCP is good news, as it means your website appears snappier and more responsive to visitors.

Bluehost's LCP was only 0.603 seconds, earning it second place in our last 15 tests, and noticeably ahead of budget providers including Domain.com (1.5 seconds) and iPage (1.6 seconds).

Occasional download speed tests are important, but they don't tell you how a server performs when it has several visitors accessing your site at the same time. To measure performance under load, we use k6 to unleash 20 users on our site simultaneously, and watch how it copes. Bluehost's were mid-range but acceptable, with our site handling an average 15 requests per seconds.

These results are positive, and put Bluehost towards the top of our shared hosting performance rankings. But keep in mind that we only ran tests on a single shared hosting plan; if you're looking at a VPS plan, dedicated hosting or anything else, you may see very different results.

How easy is Bluehost to use? 

Bluehost's account control panel is a good-looking web home which makes it simpler than most to get started on your site.

WordPress comes preinstalled, for instance, no need to do it yourself. Handy shortcuts to 'Customize your design' or 'Write your first blog post' allow you to immediately begin work on your site, even if you've never used WordPress before. Alternatively, if you're more experienced, you can access the regular WordPress dashboard with a click.

Clicking 'Advanced' on the Bluehost sidebar gives you access to cPanel. Whether you're looking to create email accounts, upload or manage files, work with databases or find out how your site traffic has been this month, there are tools to help here.

Although Bluehost installs WordPress by default, it's not your only option. CPanel also includes Softaculous, a top-notch automated installer which can set up forums, ecommerce website builders, social networking platforms, wikis and hundreds of other apps, usually with just a click or two.

Web hosting can be a complicated business, and even experts might struggle at times. But Bluehost's well-designed website and industry-standard tools score higher than most for both helping users find the features they need, and then providing all the functionality necessary to get the job done.

What is Bluehost's support like? 

Bluehost offers 24/7 support via its website, live chat and telephone. There's no ticket or email option, potentially a problem with ongoing issues as you may have to explain your problem all over again with every support session. (In one case, with a non-critical issue which was annoying but didn't affect our website, we've spent around six hours across seven support sessions, and it's still not been fixed.)

Bluehost's web knowledgebase has a huge range of detailed and helpful articles, neatly organized into sensibly-named categories: WordPress, Domains, Email, Control Panel and more.

The site doesn't always present these in the best order. Choose the WordPress category, for instance, and the first hit is the release notes for WordPress 5.0, which first appeared in 2018. That's not going to help anyone at all.

You can use keywords to search the database, though, which delivers marginally better results. But you'll find what you need, even if it does take a touch more scrolling and clicking than we'd like. And once you do, we found most articles do a great job of explaining their issues and pointing us to the best solutions.

Bluehost's live chat support seems well staffed; we've never waited more than a couple of minutes for an agent to appear, and usually it's much less.

The agents are friendly and helpful, and happy to stick with you for as long as it takes (we've had sessions of an hour or more.) They generally give very good advice for common issues, but that's not always the case with unusual problems. 

For example, when presenting agents with the issue ‘your dashboard has been displaying the same Setting Up Backups message for three weeks’, the agents focused entirely on workarounds for the issue (access backups from this menu instead) rather than addressing the root concern (an area of the dashboard isn’t working or useable.)

The lack of a ticket system can be a problem. On a couple of occasions, we had agents tell us they'd escalate the Setting Up Backups issue to admins to get it fixed. The issue wasn't fixed, but because there was no ticket, we had no quick way to follow up on the escalation promise and check what was going on. 

Bluehost's telephone support is also easy to use, and again, it connected us to an agent within a couple of minutes. He displayed more knowledge than the live chat team, did a better job of handling the Setting Up Backups question, and explaining to us how to perform a complex troubleshooting task.

Overall, Bluehost offers decent all-round support in most situations. We'd really, really, really like ticket support, but the current setup should help you solve most common problems without difficulty, and that's far better than we see with most of the competition.

Final verdict

The company’s tiny and not-very-configurable VPS and Dedicated plans mean Bluehost is less likely to work for the most demanding business users, but overall, Bluehost remains a quality provider who delivers faster, more reliable and better quality hosting than most of the competition.

Bluehost’s underpowered VPS and dedicated hosting plans mean it may not work for the largest and most demanding business-critical sites, but it excels everywhere else, with all the feature-packed shared, WordPress, website-building and ecommerce plans you need to build fast and reliable personal and small to medium business sites.

Bluehost FAQs

Two-minute review

The third-generation Oura ring might look like its predecessor, but inside there are some big upgrades that make it even better at tracking – and improving – your daily habits.

First, a little background: Oura is a smart ring, an emerging category but one Oura is top of. For now, at least. It's lined with sensors, which measure biometric data 24 hours a day, and uses it to help you strike the right balance of rest and activity. The fact that it’s a ring means you have to rely on its well-designed smartphone app when you want to check your stats, but also means that heart rate data is more accurate, as the blood vessels in your fingers are much closer to the surface than those in your wrist.

The latest Oura, released back in 2021, has a brand new optical heart rate sensor that now tracks data 24 hours a day meaning you can spot-check your pulse any time, and easily review changes over time. It also means the app has much more data to draw on when assessing your activity and recovery habits, making its guidance much more accurate and useful. It's our top choice for best sleep tracker, at least while we wait to see if the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy Ring can knock it off its perch, or perhaps an unannounced Oura Ring 4.

There’s a new SpO2 sensor, as well, which also benefits from being on your finger rather than your wrist, plus seven temperature sensors to track changes in skin temperature.

The Oura app collects and analyzes all this data, but never gives you figures without context. No matter how far you drill down through the graphs and charts, there’s always a detailed explanation of how it was calculated, what it means, and what action you can take to improve your rest/activity balance. Your heart rate variability is lower than usual, which means you may be stressed – perhaps consider a relaxation session. You got to bed on time, but had less REM sleep than you should – consider cutting back on the caffeine.

Along with the latest ring, Oura has also introduced a subscription plan, which will give you access to extra tools and insights for a monthly fee. The ring comes with a six-month trial, and existing Oura users who decide to upgrade will get free lifetime membership.

Before you place your order though, you should know that some of the ring’s most interesting features have yet to launch. Automatic workout tracking, for example, isn’t yet available to Android users, and the ability to track your heart rate during exercise is scheduled to arrive in early 2022. Most of Oura’s member-only features are still in development too.

Price and release date

• Released November 2021
• Same price as second-gen Oura ring
• Optional membership subscription

The third-generation Oura was released on November 16 2021, and costs $299 (about £230 / AU$420). That’s the same as the starting price of the second-generation ring, but this time there’s no premium diamond-set version available. The ring can only be bought direct from Oura, but worldwide shipping is available.

The price of the ring includes a six-month Oura membership. Once that expires, you’ll need to pay $5.99 (about £4.50 / AU$8) per month to maintain your subscription if you want to keep access to premium features. If you’re upgrading from a second-gen Oura ring, you’ll get lifetime membership for free.

For comparison, Apple Fitness Plus costs $9.99 / £9.99 / AU$14.99 per month, and Fitbit Premium is $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$15.49. These both offer a lot more features than Oura’s membership plan, but they’re also much more established; the Oura subscription service has only just launched, and should receive lots of extra tools over the coming months and years.

Design

• Clean, simple look
• Choice of four finishes
• Updated shape

From the outside, the Oura looks like a simple metal band, but look closer and you’ll see that it’s lined with sensors that sit against your finger.

Before you order your ring, Oura will send you a set of plastic blanks so you can find the best size for your hand, and get used to how it’ll feel to wear the device during everyday activities. Oura advised us that, unlike the second-gen model, the sensors in the new ring works best when worn on a finger rather than your thumb. Thankfully, it’s smooth and comfortable, which is important for a device that you’ll be wearing all day and all night.

It comes in four colors (metallic silver, black, or gold, and a matt black finish called ‘stealth’), and is completely plain except for a small flat section that sits on top of your finger, and is reminiscent of a signet ring. This is a new feature for the third-gen ring, and gives its designers a tiny bit of extra space for its internal components. It’s no heavier than its predecessor though, and still weighs between four and six grams.

Its charger is a simple black plastic stand that connects to a USB cable, with a white LED that illuminates when the ring is connected.

Features

• Upgraded heart rate sensor
• Seven temperature sensors
• New SpO2 sensor

One of the biggest benefits of a smart ring over a watch is that the blood vessels in your fingers are closer to the skin than those in your wrist, which should result in more accurate heart rate measurements. It therefore makes sense that the biggest upgrade to the Oura 3 is a new optical heart rate sensor, which now measures your pulse 24 hours a day.

The second-gen Oura excelled at tracking your wellbeing while you sleep, but constantly measuring your heart rate during waking hours as well means that there’s much more data for the app to draw upon in order to assess your activity, wellbeing, and recovery.

The new ring also has seven skin temperature sensors, which allow it to measure changes in your baseline temperature that could be caused by exercise, stress, or your menstrual cycle to predict your period more accurately than a simple calendar. Period prediction is currently in beta for iOS users, and should be rolling out for Android in the near future.

The final addition to the ring is an SpO2 sensor, which tracks blood oxygen saturation throughout the night. Like the heart rate sensor, this benefits from being against your finger due to the closer proximity of blood vessels to the skin’s surface, so its readings should be more accurate than those from a watch.

Performance

• Long-term use gives more accurate results
• Data clearly presented and explained
• Workout tracking is a work in progress

First of all, it’s important to note that you’ll need to use the Oura ring for at least a couple of weeks in order to establish baseline habits – and the longer you use it, the more accurate and useful its reports will be.

Like its predecessors, the third-gen Oura is designed to help you strike the right balance of activity and rest, keeping moving enough to maintain and improve your fitness, while getting enough sleep and quiet time to recharge for the next day.

The ring connects to the Oura smartphone app (available for Android and iOS), and your biometric data is synced automatically throughout the day. All your stats are presented clearly in a nicely designed dashboard, and you can browse through more in-depth analysis by tapping on three categories: readiness, sleep, and activity.

Each day, you’ll be given a readiness score based on how well you’ve managed to balance activity and rest, and how much energy you have for the day ahead. This is a feature that Fitbit has recently added to its own app, though only for Fitbit Premiums subscribers, and Oura’s score takes more metrics into account.

Like most fitness trackers and smartwatches, Oura also gives you a sleep score when you wake (presented as a percentage and a semicircular chart so you can quickly check it at a glance first thing). This takes into account not just how long you spent asleep, and in which sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), but also factors including your heart rate and bedtime schedule.

Finally, the dashboard will present you with an activity goal, which you should aim to complete before the end of the day. You’ll be told how many calories you should aim to burn through activity based on your age, gender and daily readiness, and the app will estiamte roughly how long you should spend walking to achieve this. More intense activities like running or cycling will fill the activity progress bar faster.

Over the first few days and weeks, Oura will build up a picture of your activity and sleeping habits, plus baselines for your temperature and heart rate. The app can then identify and interpret any deviations from these norms.

Rather than simply presenting this as raw data, the Oura app processes it in various interesting ways that help you understand your daily habits. For example, delving into your heart rate data will allow you to see something called ‘restorative time’ – periods during the day when both your body and mind are recharging. This is calculated using not just your heart rate, but also the temperature of your hands; if your hands are relatively warm and your heart rate is low, it’s likely that you’re taking some time to relax.

In our tests, we were particularly impressed by the ring’s ability to differentiate between time spent in bed and time spent actually asleep; something many dedicated sleep trackers struggle with. We also appreciated its ability to detect naps. Many fitness trackers fail to tell the difference between a few minutes of rest during the day and a full night’s sleep, and award you a low score if you take a quick siesta in the afternoon. Oura identifies naps, prompts you to confirm them in the app, and integrates them into its analysis of your sleeping patterns. Naps will also be factored into your daily readiness score – and if you’re not sleeping well at night, you may be encouraged to avoid them later in the day.

We found that activity detection seemed to be the Oura ring’s weakest point. The new all-day heart rate tracking appeared to accurately reflect changes in exercise intensity, but we would sometimes receive notifications that we’d achieved our daily activity goal while doing something like cooking, or even brushing our hair.

Oura rolled out automatic workout detection for iOS users in February 2021, but this feature doesn’t yet seem to have reached Android. The app will detect if you’ve completed some intense activity, and will count it towards your daily goal, but if you want to get specific you’ll need to enter the workout details yourself. To do that, tap the plus icon on the main dashboard and enter the time you began, the type of activity, and the duration. The app will then calculate the calorie burn and factor the exercise into your daily metrics.

Hopefully automatic workout detection will arrive on Android before long – and it should be quite refined when it does. Each time the iOS app identifies a workout, it will prompt the user to report back on whether or not it was accurate, helping to fine-tune the algorithm.

In early 2022, Oura is also planning to introduce a feature that will allow you to track your heart rate during workouts, and get insights into your exercise after you’ve finished. We’ve few details at the time of writing, but a preview of the tool shows a map of a running route, so the tool will presumably use your phone’s GPS chip to track your location.

Member benefits

• Sleep sounds available in the app
• Lots more content on the way

The Oura app received a major upgrade to coincide with the launch of the third-generation ring, and now contains several extra tools for paid-up members. Right now these are mostly sleep and relaxation aids, but the company promises that subscribers can look forward to “an ever-growing suite of features, insights, personalized recommendations, guided audio sessions, science-based educational content, and more.”

In short, it sounds very much like a new competitor to the likes of Fitbit Premium, Apple Fitness Plus, and the recently launched Amazon Halo Fitness service.

To get a taste of things to come, tap the menu button at the top left of the Oura app, and you’ll see a list of additional options including ‘Sleep sounds’. These are guided meditation sessions and relaxing stories to help you wind down before bed, or whenever you want to chill out. The selection is quite small at the time of writing, with three meditations and three stories, but each one is very nicely presented, and can be accompanied by a soothing background sound like white noise, waves, or rainfall. It’s a strong start, and we’re looking forward to seeing what else Oura adds over the coming months for subscribers.

First reviewed December 2021

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

• The best cheap fitness trackers

Lightspeed is a Canadian point of sale (POS) and e-commerce software vendor. The company was founded in 2005 to provide POS systems to online and physical retailers and has grown rapidly since its launch. In 2014, it began providing payment solutions for the hospitality industry.

Lightspeed’s operations are divided into four main divisions; Retail, eCommerce, OnSite, and Restaurant. The company currently serves over 160,000 customers and processed tens of billions of dollars worth of transactions last year. It brought in over $600 million in net revenue in the same period. 

In 2021, Lightspeed changed its formal name from Lightspeed POS, Inc to Lightspeed Commerce Inc. This name change reflected its strategic shift from point-of-sale systems to broader online and brick-and-mortar commerce tools. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. 

Competitor products include AirPOS, Shopify, EposNow and Square POS.

Lightspeed POS: Plans and pricing

Lightspeed offers different pricing for its point-of-sale systems to physical retailers and restaurants. Besides, it’s unlike other systems where you pay one-time for the hardware. Lightspeed requires an ongoing monthly subscription if you want to use its POS system, and you’ll have access to the software as long as you renew your monthly subscription.

There are four plans both for retailers and restaurants:

Retailers

Lean: $89 per month. This plan gives you access to the POS software and an integrated payments processing solution.

Standard: $149 per month. Everything in the Lean plan plus software tools for accounting and setting up an online store.

Advanced: $269 per month. Everything in the Standard plan plus advanced reporting & analytics tools and loyalty plans for customers.

Enterprise: Custom pricing (contact the sales team for a quote). You can get personalized consultation services, an assigned customer support staff, and negotiate your transaction fees.

Restaurants

Essentials: $69 per month. A customizable POS system, menu manager, floor plan manager, advanced reporting, integrated payments, and several other features that make running a restaurant easier.

Plus: $189 per month. Everything in the Essentials plan plus an online ordering system, order at pay and table system, contactless payments, cloud-based monitoring, and multi-location management.

Pro: $399 per month. Everything in the Plus plan plus raw API access to customize the payments experience.

Enterprise: Custom pricing (contact sales team). A personalized hardware and software system, unlimited consultation services, and a dedicated support team.

The fee for processing payments is a separate 2.6% + 10¢ for every successful card transaction.

Lightspeed POS: Features

Hardware

Lightspeed does not have its own special hardware system, unlike many other POS vendors. You can use it with an iPad or buy POS hardware from Verifone; e285, P400, or 400m. You'll also need to buy other individual accessories such as a receipt printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner. For convenience, Lightspeed offers a hardware kit that includes an iPad stand, kitchen printer, receipt printer, and cash drawer; you just need an existing iPad.

Using an iPad or off-the-shelf POS hardware saves significant costs, unlike many other POS providers that require you to buy or rent their specialized hardware that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. You can even use hardware from different brands, while Lightspeed focuses on providing point-of-sale software.

Payments Processing

Lightspeed offers its own solution that enables you to receive payments from customers' cards. There’s no setup fee and the system is easy to set up. Once it’s up and running, you’re free to accept payments from all major debit and credit cards. The pricing is simple; 2.6% + 10¢ for every successful transaction.

Depending on your plan, you can get access to other tools that help you manage and report sales. For example, you can integrate the payment system with your accounting software to automatically record every sale instead of doing that manually. You can also monitor your sales reports in real time from any device (as long as you have the correct login details).

If you run a restaurant, you can set the POS system to split bills among groups and allow each individual to pay at different times. You can set the prices of items beforehand and just select the items that the customer chooses to automatically calculate the price. These extra features make Lightspeed an ideal POS solution for retailers and restaurants.

eCommerce Tools

Some pricing plans also give you access to Lightspeed’s tools for setting up an online store. You can create a professional online store, add inventory, and collect payments from customers with ease. You can even connect your website to social media platforms and other online marketplaces to get sales.

Lightspeed POS: Interface and use

Lightspeed offers a lot of good features, but one of the major complaints we observed is that the platform has a clunky interface. Truly, Lightspeed isn’t as user-friendly as many other POS software vendors, owing in part to having many features that you might find difficult to navigate. However, it’s not impossible to adapt and become used to the platform.    

Lightspeed POS: Support

Lightspeed offers customer support through email, telephone, and live chat. The company has different telephone support lines depending on the country you’re calling from. Email response is quick (under 24 hours) and so is live chat. Customers often praise Lightspeed for having stellar customer support.  

Lightspeed POS: The competition

Stripe and Clover are two popular competitors with Lightspeed’s POS system. Unlike Lightspeed, Stripe lets you purchase hardware one-time and you don’t pay any recurring subscription fees. Its transaction fees are slightly more expensive; 2.7% + 5 cents.

Clover requires a monthly subscription fee just like Lightspeed. But, you can get much lower transaction fees (2.4% + $0.10) depending on the plan you pick.

Lightspeed POS: Final verdict

Lightspeed is a good point-of-sale system that we’ll recommend to every retailer or hospitality business. It is easy to set up and makes accepting payments as easy as possible. However, beware of some slight drawbacks such as a clunky interface.    

Further reading

You may also like our articles on the best POS systems for restaurants and best POS for food trucks, or 9 inspiring ideas on how to use POS system customer data.

Shopify may need no introduction because it is the most popular e-commerce software vendor globally. The company was founded in 2006 by an entrepreneur named Tobias Lütke who struggled to build an online store for snowboarding equipment and set out to build his own e-commerce software to make it easier. Observing that the software was good, he switched his focus from building an online store to providing tools for retailers that needed to build one.

Shopify’s e-commerce software has enjoyed paralleled growth and garnered millions of customers across the globe. By 2016, the company had nearly $400 million in annual revenue, and that figure exploded to $4.6 billion by 2021 after the Covid pandemic spurred an online retail boom.

Shopify forayed into point-of-sale systems in 2017 by releasing a Bluetooth-enabled debit and credit card reader for brick-and-mortar stores. Since then, it has built more POS products and turned them into a major source of revenue. The company is based in Ottawa, Canada.

Shopify POS: Plans and pricing

Shopify offers two point-of-sale plans; Lite and Pro. Lite is included for every user who has an existing Shopify plan, while Pro costs $89 per month per location in addition to the cost of the Shopify plan. 

The three main Shopify plans you can choose from include;

Basic: $39 per month, or $29 per month billed annually. This plan gives you access to basic reports, 2 staff accounts, and up to 1,000 inventory locations.

Shopify: $105 per month, or $79 per month billed annually. This plan provides 5 staff accounts, professional reports, and up to 1,000 inventory locations.

Advanced: $399 per month, or $299 per month billed annually. This plan provides 5 staff accounts, professional reports, and up to 1,000 inventory locations. This plan includes 15 staff accounts, a custom report builder, and up to 1,000 inventory locations.

As for point-of-sale transaction fees, each plan comes with a different structure;

- Basic: 2.7% 

- Shopify: 2.5%

- Advanced: 2.4%

Note that Shopify lets you try each plan for just $1 per month for three months before paying the full price. 

To accept payments, you must buy a Shopify card reader or a full terminal known as POS Go (this cost is one-time and includes a 1-year warranty). POS Go costs $399 or $429 including a pouch for the device. The card reader costs $49 and an extra $39 if you want a dock.

Shopify POS: Features

Hardware

The POS Go is an all-in-one terminal that includes a card reader and barcode scanner. You can use the scanner to automatically detect the price of an item and the card reader to receive the money from the customer. This device accepts tap, chip, and swipe payments. It has a 5.5-inch high-definition display and a long battery life to ensure you can use it for a whole business day after a full charge.

The smaller card reader lets you accept tap and chip payments from customers but not swipe. It connects wirelessly to a tablet or via Bluetooth to a mobile phone. It is compact and easy to handle, meaning it is suitable for businesses that operate on the go, e.g., farmer's markets.

Shopify Payments

Shopify offers a payments processing solution that lets you charge money to all major debit and credit cards. Your customers can insert their cards, tap them, or swipe them depending on the type of hardware you chose. There's also Tap to Pay, which lets you accept payments on your iPhone without any additional hardware. The pricing is transparent -- between 2.4% and 2.7% on each successful transaction -- with no hidden fees or setup fees.

Inventory Management

One of the major pain points that retailers face is managing their inventory; knowing which products are available at a given time and the prices for each of them. The good thing is that Shopify provides features to help.

You can take stock of each item and assign products to different locations and channels using Shopify's software. You can also perform accurate inventory counts with your barcode scanner after receiving goods. You can set the system to alert you if an item is running out of stock or to provide sale item suggestions. Likewise, you can get detailed reports to track your sales; what products are selling faster, what products aren’t selling, which products should be restocked, etc. 

Shopify POS: Interface and use

One of Shopify’s main selling points is its intuitive and visually-appealing interface. Despite packing so many features, Shopify’s developers managed to design and build an app that’s easy to navigate. The interface is minimal, uncluttered, and looks appealing to both you and your customers. You’ll likely find it easy to set up Shopify’s point-of-sale system and use it routinely.    

Shopify's point of sale software ease of use is undoubtedly its greatest strength. 

Providing sufficient performance and user friendliness can be a difficult balancing act, but it’s one Shopify POS pulls off commendably. 

You get a free 14 day trial without having to hand over your company credit card details, so you can see just how easy it is to do business with. During the trial, you're offered a user dashboard with a friendly intro video giving you a guide to the POS platform. 

The dashboard is intuitive and allows you to handle basic tasks with locations, additional products, taxes, payments and set up systems. On the left hand column, you can view some of your key data such as orders, customers, discounts and any marketing activity. 

Shopify POS: Support

Shopify offers direct support through email, live chat, and telephone. You can contact the company’s support team at anytime and expect a quick response. There’s also an official Help Center where you can access articles and user guides on setting up and using Shopify’s POS system. Likewise, there’s an official forum to interact with other Shopify users and exchange solutions to each other’s problems. 

Shopify POS: The competition

There’s no shortage of POS systems rivaling Shopify’s. Stripe and Clover are two popular competitors. Stripe has higher transaction fees but you don’t need to pay any recurring subscription fee after buying the hardware, unlike with Shopify. Clover has much more expensive hardware than Shopify but similar transaction fees. 

Other competitors include AirPOS, EposNow and Square POS.

Shopify POS: Final verdict

Shopify’s point-of-sale system is one of the best that we’ve seen so far. You’ll hardly find another POS system that is this intuitive and offers so many features. The main drawback is that Shopify is much more expensive than the competition; you’ll first need a Shopify susbcription then an extra $89 per month per location if you want all point-of-sale features. 

We've rated the best merchant services.

Kobo Libra 2: Two-minute review

When it was announced back in October 2021, the Kobo Libra 2 didn't seem like much of an upgrade over the Libra H2O, at least on paper. However, what little changed made the ereader an absolute winner, particularly when it comes to value for money. And it remains so even after all this time and newer models having been released since.

In the time since its launch, Kobo has quietly increased the price of most of its current ereader models, but at launch the Libra 2 was almost the same price as the H2O – just $10 / £10 / AU$10 more in fact. However, the features the Libra 2 boasts still makes it worthwhile despite the price rise.

The Kobo Libra 2 uses the E Ink Carta 1200 screen that's still being used on newer models, 32GB internal storage, Bluetooth connectivity for listening to audiobooks via wireless headphones, and a USB-C charging port. That puts the Libra 2 in direct competition with Amazon’s 2021 edition of the Kindle Paperwhite, but the asymmetric design that allows you to use the Libra 2 single-handed just adds to its appeal.

Out of all those updates, the addition of audiobook support is arguably the headline feature. It’s taken Kobo a long time to catch up with Amazon in this regard, but Kobo fans can finally have their favorite titles read to them, as long as the audiobook has been purchased from the Kobo Store. Since the launch of the Libra 2, every other Kobo ereader has boasts Bluetooth support.

Additionally, Kobo has opened up its ebook and audiobook subscription service to more markets outside of Canada and select European countries but, at the time of writing, Kobo Plus has been made available in Australia and New Zealand, not in the US or the UK. Where available, you can sign up directly from the Libra 2’s home screen, giving you instant access to thousands of titles in digital or audio format.

Kobo has upped the internal storage capacity of its mainstream ereader, bumping it up from 8GB to a whopping 32GB (taking a leaf out of the Kobo Elipsa playbook). Another significant improvement over older ereaders is the replacement of the Micro-B charging port to a USB-C option, which has now become the norm across all ereaders. While that makes topping up the battery – which is a higher capacity compared to the Libra H2O – remarkably quick, it slows down dramatically after about 92%, which is our only complaint about the ereader.

There are some minor design changes to the Libra 2 as compared to its predecessor, but nothing to write home about. The thicker bezel has a cleaner look as the crease (found between the page-turn buttons and the screen) on the Libra H2O has been removed, and the new device is just a smidge bigger.

Despite the millimeter difference in size, the screen is still the same 7 inches of the Libra H2O, but is a touch more responsive because of the latest E Ink Carta technology. The difference in responsiveness between the older Libra and the new is minuscule, but if you’ve been using any other older Kobo, the Libra 2 is definitely worth the upgrade just in terms of performance and storage.

All the other Kobo perks are onboard, of course – a much wider file format support compared to the Kindles, a more streamlined user interface and, importantly, baked-in OverDrive and Pocket support.

Take all these individual ingredients, stir them into a single device and you’ve got the winning recipe for the best bang-for-buck ereader, despite the price hike. All we need now from Kobo is an ereader with a color display.

Kobo Libra 2 review: price and availability

• Announced October 2021
• Launch price of $179.99 / £159.99 / AU$279.99
• Kobo Plus available in select markets

Kobo announced the global launch of the Libra 2 on October 6, 2021 for a price of $179.99 / £159.99 / AU$279.99. Since then, however, Kobo has upped the price tag to $189.99 / £169.99 / AU$299.99.

Despite the higher cost, the Kobo Libra 2 remains competitively priced, particularly when you take into account its storage capacity of 32GB. It's a lot cheaper than the 8GB Amazon Kindle Oasis’ $249.99 / £229.99 / AU$399 price tag, and even offers better value than the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite that will set you back $139.99 / £129.99 / AU$239 for 8GB of storage, a 6.8-inch display and no page-turn buttons. And it's priced well when compared to the 32GB Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, but for $189 / £179 / AU$289, you are getting wireless charging on the premium Paperwhite model.

The Libra 2 is available to buy directly from the Kobo Store online or at major retailers worldwide.

The Libra 2 (and the Sage with it) debuted Kobo Plus, an ebook/audiobook subscription service to Australia and New Zealand for AU$13.99 / NZ$14.99 / CA$9.99. There’s no word yet on Kobo Plus availability in the US or UK, but it has been available in Canada since 2019 and The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal since 2020.

Kobo Libra 2 review: design and display

• Minor design tweaks
• E Ink Carta 1200 display
• USB-C port

Amazon might have been the one to pioneer the asymmetric design now shared by several ereaders, but Kobo seems to have embraced it completely. Out of the eight ereaders in its current catalog (the Libra H2O is still available in some markets), four have the page-turn buttons that make single-hand use so easy – clearly Kobo means for that design to stay and we’re all for it.

That design, though, has undergone a slight refinement. In the Libra H2O, there was a crease clearly visible on the thicker bezel, which is no longer there on the Libra 2. Even the little recess between the two page-turn buttons on the Libra H2O is gone, instead giving the Libra 2 a slightly cleaner look despite the plastic chassis.

Speaking of bezels, the other three are oh-so-slightly bigger… by a millimeter or so. It’s hardly noticeable, but that means the Libra 2 has its own sleepcover range. It’s also marginally heavier than the Libra H2O, weighing 215g compared to 192g.

The charging indicator light – which also blinks when the device is being powered on – is now lower down the thicker bezel, sitting almost in a corner. And on the side of the thicker bezel, close to the indicator light, is the USB-C port. This replaces the Micro-B socket that was on the older Kobos and Kindles, and can be used for both charging the ereader and transferring files from a computer.

The rear is still textured, offering a very good grip, while the power button, which is still recessed but not as deeply as in the Libra H2O, is easier to press in the Libra 2 as compared to the older model.

Also still recessed is the screen on the Libra 2 as in the older ereader, not lying flush with the bezels as on the Kindle Oasis or the Kobo Sage.

The display is still 7 inches, but it’s the latest E Ink Carta 1200 screen that boasts a 20% increase in response time and 15% better contrast compared to the Carta HD display on the Libra H2O. In real-world use, that difference is marginal as compared to the older Libra model – likely because it uses the same 1GHz processor as the predecessor – but a significant improvement compared to the older models like the Kobo Forma or Kobo Clara HD. Screen resolution, however, remains at 300ppi, but the new screen tech adds a dark mode where white text appears on a black background.

The Libra 2 shares the patented ComfortLight Pro screen technology available on all Kobo ebook readers, comprising white and amber LEDs arranged along the bottom of the screen that project light evenly upwards. And ‘evenly’ is exactly how it works – there are no bright spots or shadow areas, not even a light gradient considering the frontlight is unidirectional.

As before, brightness can be adjusted on screen via a slider on the top menu bar or by sliding a finger along the display beside the thick bezel. There are no ambient light sensors aboard, but the ability to set the light temperature to change from cool to warm (or vice versa) depending on time of day is available – something that’s missing on the more expensive Kindle Oasis.

Despite weeks of use of the white model of the Libra 2, we couldn’t see a single scuff mark or oily fingerprint. We’re unsure whether the black option holds up as well, but if the H2O was anything to go by, it would look just as clean unless your hands are particularly oily or sweaty.

The entire ereader can be submerged in a maximum of two meters of water for up to 60 minutes, thanks to its IPX8 certification. If you’ve got the skill to read underwater (an amazing skill indeed), you can easily do so in the pool – while the touchscreen won’t quite work because the water tends to interact with the display, the page-turn buttons will keep you going.

Kobo Libra 2 review: ebook and audiobook experience

• Auto-rotates orientation
• Easy Bluetooth setup
• Sideloaded fonts supported

We’ve been massive fans of the Kobo experience here at TechRadar – the UX is clean and keeps on improving with each firmware release. The update that debuted with the Libra 2, however, moved the Wishlist tab from out of ‘Discover’ and nestled it under the ‘More’ tab on the home screen – we think it’s old spot under the Discover tab was better, but this is us just nitpicking, really, and it didn't take long to get used to it. 

It’s pretty hard to fault the reading experience of a Kobo, particularly one that can be oriented in either landscape or portrait mode, or locked into either orientation. No matter how you like to read, the text on screen rotates instantaneously. In similar fashion, page refreshes are clean and barely noticeable.

The screen renders copy in sharp lettering, with several font sizes to choose from. You can even change the font to any of the default options, or sideload your preferred ones without a hassle. 

It’s not just the font support that’s great here; file support has always been Kobo’s strong suit. 15 file formats are supported, including PDF, JPEG, GIF, TXT, HTML and the two comic fonts of CBZ and CBR.

While reading regular ebooks is an absolute pleasure on the Libra 2, comics can be a little difficult on the 7-inch screen. Depending on how the comic or graphic novel is laid out, some frames or speech bubbles can get cut off.

But no matter the file size, we never found the device to slow down, hang or lag.

If you’re a fan of dark modes on all your digital devices, then you’ll love the Libra 2. The Carta 1200 allows for a dark mode and you can set the tablet to display white on black by heading to the Reading Settings pane. This, however, only makes ebooks appear in inverted colors, not the home screen or the settings panes. Even the top menu options available by tapping on the screen will be in the usual black-on-white setup and not in dark mode.

It’s a similar situation with the auto-orientation as well – this works only for ebooks (in any format), but it does not change the orientation of the home screen, which is always in portrait mode. That’s really not much of an issue at all, but it’s well worth mentioning.

The latest screen tech hasn’t removed the issue of ‘ghosting’ though. This is where you can occasionally see a light image of the previous screen/page – particularly if there are pictures – overlaid on the current page. This is an issue with every E Ink screen we’ve seen and, to be honest, the overlay is so light, you’ll either get used to it really quickly (if you’ve never used an ereader before) or barely even notice it. 

When it comes to audiobooks, you can only listen to ones you’ve purchased from the Kobo Store. Some libraries might give you access to audiobooks, but if they’re in MP3 format, they won’t play on the Libra 2. This is the first time we’ve seen Kobo go against its claims about the openness of its ecosystem, but it’s also the first time the company has offered audiobook support, and we hope Kobo makes it more inclusive in future.

Pairing with Bluetooth headphones was remarkably easy for us – just like how you’d do it on a phone.

The controls available on the Libra 2 are the play/pause options and skipping 30 seconds back and forth. Like a chapter list on ebooks, there’s a track list as well, which corresponds to different chapters in the book, and you can select any of those if you wish to start in the middle. The audiobook control panel also gives you access to statistics on the titles you’ve listened to, including how long you’ve listened, how much is left and a graphical representation of the chapters.

Audiobooks continue to play if you put the screen to ‘sleep’ and you can use your headphones’ controls to play and pause too.

As with all Kobo ereaders, having OverDrive on the device means you’ll be able to borrow ebooks from a local library that supports the platform – all you need is a library card. This feature works in most countries that Kobo is officially available, unlike Kindles where borrowing library books is only for US customers.

For anyone who uses Pocket to save and read longform web articles offline can log into their account on the Libra 2 and use the tablet to read those articles. 

Kobo Libra 2 review: battery life

• 1,500mAh capacity
• Excellent battery life
• Quicker charging than before... sort of

Another upgrade over the Libra H2O on the new model is the battery capacity – that’s been upped from 1,200mAh to a more generous 1,500mAh. On a single charge, we squeezed out an average of 54 hours of use, and that includes a mix of reading, listening and browsing the Kobo Store, plus with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi always on, screen brightness set at 15% at all times and pages set to refresh once per chapter. 

To put that number into perspective, that’s about seven weeks of use for anyone who reads about an hour a day. Even if you’re an avid reader and spend three or four hours a day reading and browsing the Kobo Store, you’ll still easily eke out three weeks or more, depending on how bright you like your screen to be and how often you've got page refreshes set up for (yes, that does consume battery). And that’s remarkable for an ereader.

Topping up the battery, however, is a different story – and a confusing one at that. In testing, we found the Libra 2 went from an almost empty battery to 92% in about 50 minutes (a significant improvement)... but then slowed way, way down. While 'trickle charging' a battery as it approaches its full state is theoretically a good thing for its health and lifespan, the sheer difference in speed was baffling: that last 8% often took up to an hour to complete.

Another unexpected behavior is the battery percentage displayed on the device’s ‘sleep’ screen as soon as you plug in the charging cable – it shows you the percentage at the time you set up charging, then gets stuck there. It doesn’t update as the battery tops up and is rather misleading as it gives the impression that the Libra 2 isn’t charging at all. That’s exacerbated by the fact that the indicator light stops blinking a minute after the charging cable has been attached.

The only way to reliably know that the battery is being charged is to keep the screen on and tap on the battery icon. This brings up a box that displays the ‘estimated time remaining’. The timer ticks down to zero seconds at about the 92% mark, after which it just displays ‘charging from USB’ for the remaining 8% or thereabouts. So even the Libra 2 doesn’t seem sure whether its battery has topped up or not after a certain point.

We’re unsure whether this is a software glitch and fixable via a future firmware update, but these battery shenanigans don’t affect the performance of the Libra 2 in any way. You can continue using it while it’s charging, even listen to audiobooks. And, to be honest, even if you stop charging the ereader at 92%, there’s days, if not weeks, of battery life available for you to not really worry about it.

Should I buy the Kobo Libra 2?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

[First reviewed December 2021]

Zoho Vault is a business-focused password manager that fits into the wider ecosystem of Zoho products – a system that includes complete CRM platforms, collaboration apps, and high-end finance, HR, and IT management tools.

With that kind of pedigree, we’ve got high expectations for Zoho Vault, and the app’s list of features doesn’t disappoint. It’s got granular control for sharing and securing passwords across entire organizations, it integrates with popular apps like Gmail, Dropbox, and Microsoft 365, and it has every core feature you need for password security, making it one of the best business password managers.

Zoho Vault: Plans and pricing

Zoho Vault has four pricing plans, including a free tier and free 15-day trial of all the paid plans where you do not need to enter your card details. Zoho Vault Free is the only plan for personal use, with unlimited password storage and two-factor authentication (2FA). It can also generate strong passwords, supports mobile platforms, has browser extensions for major browsers, and integrates with the other Zoho apps.

The Standard plan costs an affordable $0.90 / £0.85 / AUD$1.50 user/month and includes all the features from the free plan. It adds secure password sharing between team members, centralized admin controls, cloud backup, and priority technical support. Even though this is on the lower end of the business plans, you can still do more advanced things like apply IP address restrictions.

Upgrading to the $4.50 / £4.50 / AUD$7 per user/month Professional plan adds user groups and password groups to easily perform batch actions like mass password changes. It also supports folder sharing, “Break the glass” for emergency access, and user access and activity reports. If you need command line interface, then this is where you’ll be at.

At the top tier is the Enterprise plan for $7.20 / £7 / AUD$10 per user/month which adds support for Active Directory, single sign-on (SSO) for cloud apps, and password event notifications. It also has help desk integration and support for custom branding.

The prices quoted are for those willing to pay annually, but click a tab on Zoho’s website and you can find pricing for rolling monthly subscriptions which cost a little bit more.

Zoho Vault: Setup

Zoho Vault has mobile apps, but it’s a browser-based password manager at heart. Signing up takes seconds. You’re asked for a memorable master password or passphrase before getting access to your dashboard. Then you add your passwords, either manually or by importing them from another password manager.

Most of your employees will interact with Zoho Vault through the browser extension, and the majority of Zoho’s other products are best thought of as being accessible through the browser. The extension functions like a bare-bones version of the full Zoho Vault dashboard, and will automatically suggest passwords from Zoho Vault when it detects relevant sites. When they add a new password, Zoho Vault will ask whether to save it to the Vault. It also has a built-in password generator to make creating unique passwords a breeze. 

Zoho Vault: Interface and performance

If you need to share passwords between members of a team, Zoho Vault offers the granular control you need. Zoho Vault’s user management, permissions, and password policy features set it apart from personal password managers. You can easily make batch changes to passwords, which is ideal for allowing a team secure access.

Zoho Vault can integrate with third-party business apps like Gmail, Dropbox, Microsoft Active Directory, and Microsoft 365. Enterprise users can use Single Sign On (SSO) with cloud apps like Salesforce and Slack, and as Zoho Vault has an API, it’s possible to integrate it with any of your own apps.

Zoho Vault is packed with options and fine-grain controls, which is great for large businesses but overbearing for general users. For a team of 1–5 users, Zoho Vault will have far too many irrelevant features, but for large businesses that need secure password management across the workforce then Zoho Vault delivers in spades.

Zoho Vault gives the option to transfer passwords, such as when someone leaves an organization, or when they get transferred to another team. This allows business passwords to be transferred to a colleague or administrator and personal passwords to be exported. Admins can even recover passwords from users who have left on bad terms.

Speaking of passwords, Zoho Vault handles them with ease. It can generate unique, strong ones as needed for new sign-ups. Additionally, it can save these passwords, and the next time you visit that site, it can auto-login to allow people to get to work quickly.

Given that this password manager has the entire backing of Zoho, it should come as no surprise that compatibility should not be an issue. As well as mainstream browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, there are also Vivaldi and Brave extensions.

The mobile apps are clean and functional, but they’re not particularly exciting to look at. Nevertheless, users are unlikely to have to go into them too much as their main function is to provide a source for the smartphone to autofill.

Zoho is yet to reveal any plans to bring passkey compatibility to its Vault, while many other rival companies have been quick to act on the new passwordless signing method. With iOS and Android both making it easier for third parties to get involved on mobile devices in 2023, it’s a shame that a giant such as Zoho hasn’t been as quick to respond as others. 

Admittedly, the majority of its plans are business-focused, and businesses are more likely to be slow when it comes to passkey adoption due to potential compatibility issues.

Similarly, other (primarily consumer-facing) password managers have started to bundle in more services like VPNs. Zoho doesn’t even have a VPN in its catalog, so this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. With Internet safety in mind, it would be nice to see Zoho create a more rounded package.

Zoho Vault: Security

With a system that uses a single master password, the security of that password is paramount. Only you know the Zoho Vault master password, and only an AES-256-encrypted version is stored on the Zoho servers. This is the same sort of protection you get with virtually any other password manager.

Zoho Vault uses a host-proof hosting model, which means it performs all encryption in your browser. An attacker can never see your passwords as they’re never sent in plain text. Every unique user has an RSA public/private key pair, so when you share a password across a team, it can only be decrypted by those with the correct authority.

Real-time audits help admins keep on top of their organization’s security situation, and you can also generate detailed reports to identify weak points and improve your security.Real-time audits help admins keep on top of their organization’s security situation, and you can also generate detailed reports to identify weak points and improve your security.

Zoho Vault: Support

Zoho Vault has one of the most impressive customer support sites we’ve seen, with extensive documentation on every aspect of the software. It includes comprehensive PDF guides, video demonstrations, FAQs, and webinars that range from basic introductions to the software to advanced functionality and best practice guides. We like how easy and painless it is to get a new team member up to speed on Zoho Vault by sending them the relevant PDFs.

Zoho Vault also has direct support options as well. This includes 24/7 email support via a direct email address, and a customer service support line in the US, Australia, India, and the UK. There is also the option of a support portal for messaging Zoho Vault to establish contact.

Zoho Vault: The competition

Though Zoho Vault’s free tier for personal use is fine, free personal password managers like LastPass are more straightforward and streamlined if you don’t need to share passwords between users, and more suitable for novice and intermediate users. Proton Pass is also a free service (though there is a paid version), and that has some credible security credentials.

For families or small teams of 5–10 members, 1Password is a valid alternative to Zoho Vault. Priced around the same as Zoho Vault, it includes secure document storage. However, as your team gets larger, Zoho Vault’s user management controls become more useful. 

If you’re specifically after a business password manager, there are plenty of alternatives to consider depending on what you regard as being important. Look out for Bitwarden, which has some impressive features including the ability to opt for self-hosting your passwords in a location you know and trust.

Zoho Vault: Final verdict

Zoho Vault has excellent security, fine control over users and passwords, and superb third-party integrations. It’s also inexpensive, and customer support is one of the best we’ve seen in a password manager service

We don’t particularly recommend it for personal use as most of the features are geared towards teams, making the interface somewhat complex, but it could be well suited to sole traders who straddle the boundary. Equally, it’s an outstanding password manager for organizations and businesses.

We've listed the best password recovery software.

RoboForm was initially devised as a password manager for businesses, but the product has expanded and now caters to organizations and individuals.

It’s undoubtedly got a broad enough feature set to handle every conceivable situation. Security comes from strong, familiar, and trusted encryption protocols, it has secure sharing options, and it pairs an excellent password generator with support for many platforms.

After we’ve gone hands-on with RoboForm, head over to our list of the best password managers and best business password managers to see if you should opt for an alternative.

Roboform: Plans and pricing

RoboForm’s pricing model for businesses changes depending on how many users require access. All subscriptions provide access to the same features and software. The price per user starts at $39.95 / £35 / AUD$60 per year, so bear in mind that the cost will add up if you buy for a larger organization. For companies that are able to predict their futures, they can sign up for three-year and five-year plans, but with relatively small discounts of 15% and 25% respectively, that might be too much risk for some. You can usually save up to 20% for paying annually with other services, without having to commit to half a decade.

Individual customers can take their pick from a free tier which includes compromised password monitoring, but they’re limited on the number of devices they can have signed in and there’s no local access option for those times where you need to save credentials without Internet access.

The Everywhere plan adds web access, which the free tier does without, as well as access on all devices, local access, password sharing, and better support. It costs $23.88 / £20 / AUD$35 annually, or $47.75 / £45 / AUD$80 per year if you want those same features for up to five users on the Family plan.

Roboform: Setup

RoboForm offers various software options, meaning business leaders can ensure compatibility across their organization.

In addition to applications for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, RoboForm also offers software options for Linux users. Web extensions for all major browsers platforms also mean you can integrate RoboForm right into your web experience, so whether you’re using Chrome, Edge, Firefox, you will be covered.

Users can easily access the applications via their device’s app store or the RoboForm website. Both apps are highly rated on their respective stores, with the iOS app getting 4.7 out of 5 stars, and the Android version almost as high at 4.5 out of 5 stars. Once downloaded, the app is easy to get up and running, but users must create an account before accessing any of the app’s features. The app and its data are protected by lots of authentication methods – including PIN numbers, master passwords, or biometrics.

Roboform: Interface and performance

RoboForm includes features such as a password generator for creating strong and unique passwords of sufficient length and complexity, one-click login, cross-platform password syncing, and offline access. It can also auto-fill data fields for time savings on sites that need long web forms completed. As of January 2023, the company also added the much-anticipated 2FA generator into the experience so there’s no need for users to rely on third-party apps to generate codes.

We also love RoboForm’s integration of folders, enabling users to organize passwords in whatever way is most useful to them. For example, businesses can easily create separate folders for work-related passwords and personal passwords. This is ideal for businesses that want to enable seamless password management for their organization, and it’s even more appealing to SMBs and sole traders who want to balance work and life without having to manage two subscriptions.

Password sharing is another powerful feature of RoboForm. This feature enables users to securely share encrypted passwords or credentials with other RoboForm users within your organization – ideal if you want to reduce the risk of sensitive information being exposed outside of your company. It’s also possible for RoboForm to grant emergency access to other users in case anything bad happens to an employee.

The RoboForm app isn’t the most glamorous password manager application, but it performs strongly and it’s easy to navigate its range of features. While it lacks some of the polish that other desktop clients have, it’s by no means bad and actually looks a lot better than some other options.

We tested the RoboForm app on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and were impressed by the speed of syncing. Although we had to conduct a manual sync, it took less than three seconds for data uploaded on the mobile app to appear on our desktop device. You can also enable automatic syncing.

Another strength of RoboForm is the high degree of account control. Users can make loads of customizations to security protocols and account settings when using the desktop or mobile apps. These advanced controls are one of the reasons RoboForm is one of our favorite password management solutions for businesses.

It’s worth mentioning that, like some of its rivals, this is purely a password manager. Other companies tend to bundle in some additional functionalities, or they offer more services as a company, which makes RoboForm look a little bit expensive in comparison. For example, there’s no VPN service so you’ll either have to pay extra for one of those or go for a password manager that has one.

Given the clear intention of targeting personal customers, it’s a shame that RoboForm has not yet disclosed any plans to add passkey compatibility. The passwordless login method is an emerging technology that has so far been fairly slow to take off, and it’s expected to take even longer before businesses want to get on board, but many consumer-oriented password managers either already support passkeys or will do in the near future, so if that’s more your thing, then for now at least, you’re out of luck with RoboForm.

Roboform: Security

As with any password management solution, a top-notch security framework is integral. Luckily, RoboForm doesn’t disappoint. As a standard, all data stored on RoboForm’s platform is encrypted end-to-end with AES 256-bit encryption. Two-factor authentication is also available for all businesses, and further enhances data security, and third-party authentication apps are supported.

RoboForm also provides advanced administrator controls such as enforced minimum master password standards and periodic password changes.

Businesses can also make use of public-private key cryptography, which allows business administrators to share encrypted passwords and credentials with employees without them ever having to see the actual password. This feature alone makes RoboForm one of the best password management solutions for businesses

Moreover, there’s an entire page on the company’s site dedicated to exposing the security measures and features, which is a major green flag for us. Companies that are open about how they operate inspire confidence, and subject themselves to more scrutiny. 

Roboform: Support

There is free support available to all via the Help Center and Manual. Here, topics get organized into categories such as Security, Web Access, and Emergency Access, and each has a list of articles to guide users through the issue.

RoboForm provides superior customer support for its subscribers and business customers. IT administrators or employees can contact the RoboForm team either via their online support system or by phone during business hours, 9AM to 5 PM EST. There are also several online learning and training resources available.

Roboform: The competition

Although RoboForm is close to best in class, it still faces competition from some of its competitors. LastPass, often considered the top provider, offers advanced administrator controls and centralized account management comparable to RoboForm’s platform.

RoboForm is also one of the most expensive password management platforms. Small and medium-sized businesses might therefore want to consider less expensive options such as RememBear, Sticky Password, NordPass or Dashlane.

If security is of great important to you, you may want to consider the recently launched Proton Pass, or if you want to take it a step further, Bitwarden users can opt for self-hosting to keep their data in a location they know and trust, even behind a firewall or proxy, which is a really exciting option that isn’t typically seen in password management, and beyond.

Roboform: Final verdict

RoboForm is a business-oriented password manager that all businesses would do well to consider for their organization. Although more expensive than many of its rivals, RoboForm offers advanced features that make it arguably one of the best password managers available.

Centralized administrator control, password sharing, and emergency access all make RoboForm particularly well suited to businesses and ensure a seamless experience across your organization. RoboForm’s security framework is also close to best-in-class, so businesses can be confident that their passwords and credentials are secure and inaccessible, even to RoboForm. We recommend RoboForm highly to individuals and companies looking for a password management solution.

On the other hand, with a selection of reasonably priced personal plans, it’s also a product you could choose for home use, and though there are cheaper options, it’s still a very capable password manager.

We've listed the best password recovery software.

Malwarebytes has been the top malware removal tool for close to 20 years. It is really thorough at finding existing threats on your devices and removing them. It has uninstall protections so malware can't remove the program while it cleans, and most threats can't block you from accessing the Malwarebytes website and downloading the program to use.

It's fairly new to the antivirus software scene, but that doesn't necessarily make Malwarebytes ineffective at protecting against future threats. It has a few advanced features that are handy to have and options that include some additional privacy tools, too,

Malwarebytes Free is the basic offering. it is the malware removal tool we highly recommend for infections already on your machine. It doesn't do much more than that, but there are advantages to having it on your computer and mobile devices.

The first paid program offered by this company is Malwarebytes Premium. It includes the malware removal tool found in the free version but adds antivirus protections, including malicious URL blocking and real-time protection reports. You get the option of protecting a single device, or five depending on the package you choose.

For a little more money, you can download Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy. The only difference between this and the Premium package is unlimited access to a VPN. A virtual private network (VPN) shield's your online movements so they can't be tracked or traced back to you.

How well does Malwarebytes protect against potential online threats coming through? We tested and evaluated it, compared it to other antivirus software, and checked out its features to see how it works. We looked at other independent antivirus test labs to see what they discovered and compared them to our own data. Keep reading our in-depth review to learn if Malwarebytes is right for you.

Plans and pricing

Obviously, it doesn’t cost anything to use Malwarebytes Free, but you're left open to attacks if you stop there. That's because it's limited to only malware removal. Malwarebytes Free is perfect for grabbing threats that are already running rampant on your machine. You need to download the program on each device that needs cleaning, and there isn’t a way to connect them under one account.

Malwarebytes Premium starts at $45/yr for a single device, though for $35 more you can protect 5 total devices. You can still use the malware removal tools since these are included with the subscription, but you also have access to Malwarebyte’s Brute Force and Uninstall protections. Both of these are helpful in ensuring the antivirus, and its malware tools, remain on your device instead of being deleted by malware.

Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy is the other paid subscription option. It comes in at $60/yr for a single device or $100 to protect 5 devices. The biggest difference between the two paid subscriptions is Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy gives you unlimited access to its VPN.

Compare Malwarebytes Subscriptions

Malwarebytes Free

If you find your computer is running slower, apps are opening or closing on their own, or you’re having a hard time navigating to the pages you want, you’re probably infected with malware. If you haven’t been using an antivirus program, chances are you’ll have a hard time downloading one to clean up the threats. This is because most malware is designed to redirect you away from other websites.

If you are fortunate enough to get an antivirus program installed, often it misses current malware infections. Your best bet is to use Malwarebytes Free. This is a malware removal tool and not antivirus software. It uses uninstall protections to both get the download onto your device and prevent threats from blocking you from using it. What’s more, very few threats can hide from Malwarebytes. It’s that good at finding and removing malware.

When you first install Malwarebytes, you’re given a limited trial of its paid program, Malwarebytes Premium. This lets you take advantage of real-time security, including ransomware protection, Security Advisor to give you points on how to better protect your entire device, and Play Mode which redirects resources from the security suite to your computer as you play games or watch movies online.

Malwarebytes is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. You have to download the program on each one, and there isn’t a way to connect them through a single account., It's possible to set the program to conduct a scan of your phone or computer every few days. Or, you can manually run scans when you’re ready. If you forget, Malwarebytes will give you a little popup message to remind you how long it’s been since your last malware scan.

Mobile apps

The free Android app, like its desktop cousin, removes existing malware but can't prevent new infections. 

There's a small bonus in a Privacy Audit, which shows you which apps can monitor your calls, track your location or exploit other permissions you might not realize you've given away. That's not worth a lot - you can find other apps to do the same, for free - but we're happy to see it here. And with a Play Store rating of 4.5, it looks like most users are happy, too.

Malwarebytes free iOS offering is simpler, with just a couple of functions: ad blocking for Safari, and automatic filtering of fraudulent texts.

Malwarebytes is supposed to be about malware protection, of course, and recent Windows testing shows it's far less effective at this than most of the top competition.

Final verdict

Malwarebytes Free isn't a great antivirus tool, but it could be helpful in a few situations. Use Windows Defender's real-time protection, for instance (a fair choice as it outperforms some commercial apps), then run a daily Malwarebytes scan to catch everything else. You won't have the protection you'll get from the best suites, but you'll be safe from most threats, and this setup won't cost you a penny.

Malwarebytes Premium

One of the best perks of using Malwarebytes Premium is you get the best malware removal tools, plus real-time antivirus protection to keep your system clean. This includes security against hackers and ransomware. The Brute Force protection starts up when it suspects someone is attempting to guess your login information.

Malwarebytes Premium includes URL monitoring to keep you away from fake websites or those that are known to harbor malware files or phishing schemes. You also have some customization options with Malwarebytes Premium. These include setting up specific scans to run during the best times for you.

While it’s a great idea to combine malware removal and antivirus together, does it really work? We tested Malwarebytes and compared it to other antivirus software. Other test labs have done the same. Here’s what we found.

Protection

To start with, Malwarebytes hasn’t allowed third-party test labs like AV-Comparatives and AV-Test to evaluate its software until recently, and it only allows its Windows version to be tested, so there isn't any data on how it protects on Mac. It hasn’t been consistently tested, either. 

Malwarebytes was most recently tested by AV-Test in April 2023 but was missing from AV-Comparatives’ March and April 2023 test results. However, there is enough history, including results within the last year, to get a clear picture of how well Malwarebytes does.

In short, it’s not the best. On average it blocks a good number of threats, but its overall score from both test labs places it just below average for overall protection. We tested Malwarebytes too and came away with similar results.

Part of this shortfall is that Malwarebytes doesn't tap into the same threat databases as other antivirus software, though they are open for it to do so. Instead, it relies on user feedback from clients using the program to gather information on the threats and create its own database.

When a user encounters new threats, Malwarebytes take note once it is identified and neutralized, updated its database, and sends out a report to other users so that their program will recognize the threat, too.

Our first test involved apps we designed to simulate malware that exploits common Windows tools to create processes, download malicious files, and generally behave in a suspect way. Malwarebytes ignored the behavior and allowed the files to download. It blocked them all on launch, or when they were ready to open, keeping us safe.

That's a good end result, but others are more cautious. For example, Trend Micro spotted our test app's dodgy-looking actions and closed their processes before they could download anything. Bitdefender also detected some of the behavior and stopped the potential threats in their tracks before having a chance to download. In both of these cases, if anything was missed, malicious files were still spotted either during the download process or shortly afterward and removed before the malware could start working. 

As a second, more high-stakes test, we pitted Malwarebytes against a simple ransomware simulator of our own creation. As the engine wouldn't have seen this before, we would see if its behavior monitoring alone could detect the threat.

The results weren't good, with Malwarebytes doing nothing at all as our simulator encrypted thousands of test documents.

Other vendors score much higher on this test. Trend Micro and Bitdefender not only spotted our simulator by its actions alone, but they also killed the process and recovered the handful of lost files, ensuring we didn't lose a byte of data.

We normally don't treat failing this test as a major black mark, because our test is a single sample, not even real malware, and it's unsafe to draw big conclusions from so little data.

In this case, though, it does broadly match what the labs are saying: Malwarebytes simply doesn't deliver the protection you'll get from the best vendors, and that has to be a concern.

Performance

When it comes to being user-friendly, Malwarebytes is good in this area. It runs in the background and protects you immediately, with everything turned on and ready to go the moment it is installed.

When you need to run an on-demand scan, that's as easy as double-clicking the Malwarebytes icon, hitting the Scan button then waiting for the results. It's all very straightforward, and even the least technical of newbies will feel at home right away.

Malwarebytes' main Scan feature quickly checks memory, startup items, and key areas of your file system. It made sensible choices on our test system, examining enough areas to be useful, but not so many that we were kept waiting for results, and completed in a speedy 7 minutes 25 seconds. (If you're in a real hurry, a Quick Scan checked RAM and startup objects in as little as 5 seconds on our review system.)

Scan times overall proved reasonable, with Malwarebytes checking our 50GB of test data in 25:18 minutes for the first scan, and 21:18 for the second. That's similar to many other vendors, although some speed up later scans by only checking new and changed files (Bitdefender took 50 minutes for scan #1, for instance, but dropped to 50 seconds by scan #2.)

There is a Custom Scan that lets you choose items you'd like checked, including specific files and folders, and gives you a little control over how they work (whether it should scan inside archives, and what to do with potentially unwanted programs, for instance.) It's a welcome touch, although doesn't begin to match the high level of control you'll see with more geek-friendly products from Avast, Avira, and others.

You're able to scan files, folders, or drives from the right-click Explorer menu. Unfortunately, the Windows client can't handle simultaneous on-demand scans, so try this when it's running a regular scan and you'll be told you must wait. This isn't a critical issue - Malwarebytes' engine still picks up threats as they appear, even if another scan is running - but it's a hassle that you don't get with the best antivirus.

Extra features

If you're hoping for a pile of bonus features - or any extras at all - then you're out of luck. There's no specialist banking protection here, no password manager, none of the items you might get with some packages. This focus on the fundamentals does at least keep Malwarebytes easy to use, though, and if you don't need that kind of extra, you might appreciate its simplicity and lack of clutter.

Final verdict

Malwarebytes Premium is a likeable security app which will make your PC a little safer, but it's not the full antivirus replacement claimed on the website. Grab a copy of the free version, maybe, but run it alongside another antivirus app to ensure your safety.

Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy

Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy is, well, the name tells you everything: it's the commercial Malwarebytes Premium plus the company's VPN product, Malwarebytes Privacy.

Privacy uses Malwarebytes' own apps (Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS are supported), but these connect to Mullvad's network underneath. That's fine with us; it's a solid VPN with excellent speeds and a strong focus on privacy.

The network looks a little small with 400+ servers in 30+ countries. They're well spread, though, with thirteen locations in the US alone, so there's a good chance you'll have a server near you.

The apps are basic in the extreme, but there are technical pluses underneath. Malwarebytes Privacy connects via the fast and secure WireGuard protocol, for instance, and its apps include a kill switch to protect you if the connection drops.

Scan times overall proved reasonable, with Malwarebytes checking our 50GB of test executables in 25:18 minutes for the first scan, 21:18 for the second. That's similar to many other vendors, although some speed up later scans by only checking new and changed files (Bitdefender Home Premium took 50 minutes for scan #1, for instance, but dropped to 50 seconds by scan #2.)

Malwarebytes Privacy

Malwarebytes Privacy has a simple but familiar interface. The dashboard displays your current location; you can choose another from a simple text list, then connect and disconnect with a click. Easy.

Desktop notifications tell you when you're protected and when you're not, and the dashboard updates to display your new IP, and highlight its location on a world map.

Switching servers is convenient as there's no need to close the active connection, first. Just choose a new location from the list and the app reconnects.

The app is missing several common features. There's no Favorites system to group your most commonly used locations. No ping or load figures to help you choose the best servers. You can't switch protocols, either: it's strictly WireGuard-only.

Look a little further, though, and you'll find plenty of useful technical touches. The app can automatically connect when you access insecure networks, for instance. A kill switch protects your identity by blocking internet access if the VPN drops. Support for split tunneling enables controlling which apps use the VPN and which don't, and a flexible multi-hop system can route your traffic through two VPN servers to extract privacy. We were impressed, briefly, until we spotted another big omission.

Extra features

If you're hoping for a pile of bonus features - or any extras at all - then you're out of luck. There's no specialist banking protection here, no password manager, none of the items you might get with some packages. This focus on the fundamentals does at least keep Malwarebytes easy to use, though, and if you don't need that kind of extra, you might appreciate its simplicity and lack of clutter.

Protection

Malwarebytes has never been the best performer in conventional lab tests.

AV-Comparatives' July-October Real-World Protection test saw Malwarebytes placed 13th out of 17 contenders with a protection score of 99.6%. 

AV-Test was even less impressed, awarding Malwarebytes 5.5/6 for protection in its October 2021 Windows Home User test. That placed it 19th out of 21 apps: only K7 Security and eScan scored lower.

Malwarebytes hasn't submitted its software to SE-Labs consumer tests for a while. It does appear in the Q1 2021 Consumer Report, though, where it came last out of 15 with a Total Protection rating of 91% (Sophos, AVG, ESET and even Microsoft Defender scored 100%.)

That's not great. Okay, it's terrible. To try to verify this, maybe get some more detail, we put Malwarebytes through a few tests of our own.

The first involved test apps which exploited common Windows tools to create processes, download malicious files and generally behave in a suspect way. Malwarebytes ignored the behavior and, initially, the files. It blocked them all on launch, though, keeping us safe.

That's a good end-result, but others are more cautious. Top performer Trend Micro spotted our test app's dodgy-looking actions, and close their processes before they could download anything. Kaspersky and Bitdefender detected some of the behavior, and if they missed anything, spotted the malicious files when they were downloaded (no waiting for them to be executed.)

As a second, more high-stakes test, we pitted Malwarebytes against a simple ransomware simulator of our own creation. As the engine wouldn't have seen this before, we would see if its behavior monitoring alone could detect the threat.

The results weren't good, with Malwarebytes doing nothing at all as our simulator encrypted thousands of test documents.

Other vendors score much higher on this test. Trend Micro, Kaspersky and Bitdefender not only spotted our simulator by its actions alone, they also killed the process and recovered the handful of lost files, ensuring we didn't lose a byte of data.

We normally don't treat failing this test as a major black mark, because our test is a single sample, not even real malware, and it's unsafe to draw big conclusions from so little data.

In this case, though, it does broadly match what the labs are saying: Malwarebytes simply doesn't deliver the protection you'll get from the best vendors, and that has to be a concern.

Final verdict

Malwarebytes Premium is a likeable security app which will make your PC a little safer, but it's not the full antivirus replacement claimed on the website. Grab a copy of the free version (evaluated below), maybe, but run it alongside another antivirus app to ensure your safety.

Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy

Malwarebytes Premium + Privacy is, well, the name tells you everything: it's the commercial Malwarebytes Premium plus the company's VPN product, Malwarebytes Privacy.

Privacy uses Malwarebytes' own apps (Windows, Mac, Android and iOS are supported), but these connect to Mullvad's network underneath. That's fine with us; it's a solid VPN with excellent speeds and a strong focus on privacy.

The network looks a little small at 400+ servers in 30+ countries. They're well spread, though, with thirteen locations in the US alone, so there's a good chance you'll have a server near you.

The apps are basic in the extreme, but there are technical pluses underneath. Malwarebytes Privacy connects via the fast and secure WireGuard protocol, for instance, and its apps include a kill switch to protect you if the connection drops.

Pricing isn't bad at $100 to protect five devices and antivirus and VPN for a year - Mullvad charges $70+ for its VPN alone - but other top suites give you many more features.

Norton 360 Deluxe, for instance, includes antivirus, a VPN, parental controls, Dark Web monitoring, a password manager, webcam protection, hosted backup with 50GB of cloud storage, and more, and a five device license costs $35 in year one, $105 on renewal. If you're looking for than just antivirus and a VPN, that looks a significantly better deal.

Malwarebytes Privacy

Malwarebytes Privacy has a simple but familiar interface. The dashboard displays your current location; you can choose another from a simple text list, then connect and disconnect with a click. Easy.

Desktop notifications tell you when you're protected and when you're not, and the dashboard updates to display your new IP, and highlight its location on a world map.

Switching servers is convenient as there's no need to close the active connection, first. Just choose a new location from the list and the app reconnects.

The app is missing several common features. There's no Favorites system to group your most commonly used locations. No ping or load figures to help you choose the best servers. You can't switch protocols, either: it's strictly WireGuard-only.

Look a little further, though, and you'll find plenty of useful technical touches. The app can automatically connect when you access insecure networks, for instance. A kill switch protects your identity by blocking internet access if the VPN drops. Support for split tunneling enables controlling which apps use the VPN and which don't, and a flexible multihop system can route your traffic through two VPN servers for extract privacy. We were impressed, briefly, until we spotted another big omission.

Performance

While most VPN apps try to connect to your nearest server by default, Malwarebytes Privacy doesn't have an 'Automatic' or 'Fastest' option. It seems to choose Sweden as a default, wherever you are, leaving you to choose your preferred location manually. 

Connection times were reasonable, at around 5 seconds. And the WireGuard protocol is made for excellent performance, with UK download speeds reaching 780Mbps. We've seen faster - Surfshark reached 960Mbps in recent testing.

The core VPN engine scored well in some areas. If you're connected to location A and switch to location B, for instance, most VPN apps close the first connection, leaving you unprotected until they establish the new one. Malwarebytes Privacy seems to use a temporary kill switch, blocking internet traffic for just those few unprotected seconds until the VPN is restored. Smart.

Unfortunately, the actual kill switch was less useful. We sometimes found that when the kill switch was on, the app couldn't connect: it blocked our internet access so thoroughly, it couldn't even get online itself. Not so smart.

The bad news continued with our final unblocking tests, too, with Privacy failing to get us into BBC iPlayer, US Netflix, Amazon, or Disney+.

We've also highlighted the best antivirus

You’d be hard-pressed to find a list of the best antivirus software that doesn’t have Bitdefender on it. It's simply that good. Bitdefender is so quick at recognizing threats, it stops malware files before they have a chance to begin downloading. And if you try to visit a website with known threats, Bitdefender displays a prominent warning to help you avoid the danger. 

It isn't just Windows where Bitdefender is effective. It's also a good Mac antivirus software and its Android antivirus app does decently well.

Stellar protection isn’t the only perk Bitdefender offers. All of its options include some great security tools that make it more effective at keeping your entire system secure from threats like hackers and snoops. 

Most antivirus programs have several subscription options known as tiers, and Bitdefender is no exception. Each tier builds upon the one before with the cheapest tier offering basic malware protection and the highest tier being the ultimate, all-in-one protection solution.

Bitdefender starts with Bitdefender Antivirus Plus as its basic malware protection program, though it does include a fair number of extra security tools to make it an overall great program. 

Bitdefender Internet Security has the same excellent malware protection as its basic program but does include more features to make sure you're well protected against other threats like hackers and snoops.

The all-in-one solution, Bitdefender Total Security includes all available security tools offered by Bitdefender, and while it does have just about everything you could need to lock down your system, it's surprisingly light on your devices and doesn't typically cause noticeable slowdown.

The Bitdefender website is really confusing. Several comparison tables show differences in which devices are protected, starting price and the number of licenses included, and even discrepancies in which tools come with each subscription. So I’ve broken it down for you here to help you figure out which Bitdefender subscription is right for you. 

Plans and pricing

For the level of security, Bitdefender comes with, and how well it works on your system without bogging it down, the price is right on point and worth every penny. All subscriptions come with free 24/7 support, real-time protection, and automatic updates, so you don’t have to worry about manually connecting or downloading patches.

Bitdefender has three great paid subscription options that work on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. Plus, you can get multiple licenses to cover more than one device without paying an arm or a leg. All your devices can be managed from a single online account where you can also schedule scans or view protection reports. Bitdefender also has options of single-year, 2-year, and 3-year subscription plans, and choices of the number of devices to protect from one up to 10.

Starting at $29.99, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus can protect up to three devices. For a basic antivirus program, it includes some impressive advanced features like a file shredder, social media protections, and safe banking tools. You’re limited to 200/MB per day on its VPN, but the fact you even get VPN access at this level is impressive. Also, Antivirus Plus comes with a vulnerability scanner.

The mid-level program, Bitdefender Internet Security, builds on the impressive feature set of Antivirus Plus. Internet Security includes parental controls, webcam monitoring, and microphone protections to give your whole family extra privacy. Its starting cost is $34.99 for three devices, but you can bump that up to 10 devices for an additional cost.

The biggest subscription is Bitdefender Total Security. This package includes every tool, plus a system optimizer to help your devices run faster. It starts at $39.99 for a single year and five devices. 

Since there isn’t a big difference between Internet Security and Total Security, this $5 difference isn’t too bad for the first year. However, after the introductory period, the cost jumps to $95 to continue using Total Security. At this point, it may be more economical to use the Internet Security option, which is cheaper.

If you're not yet convinced, no problem: every product has a 30-day trial build available. There are no credit card details required, just register with your email address and you can check out Bitdefender's abilities for yourself.

Compare Bitdefender Subscriptions

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus

Installing Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is fast and almost automatic. It's as quick and easy as pointing, clicking the download button, and within, a couple of minutes, getting a reassuring 'Bitdefender is successfully installed' message. It walks you through every step to help you get started. 

You don't need to set up much because the most important functions are already on by default. But Bitdefender has in-program tutorials and guides to help you enable additional tools for added security of your device.

• Get Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for $36 off by clicking here if you live in the US or UK or alternatively click here if you live in Australia!

During my in-house tests, Bitdefender equipped my test system with 13 new background processes and Windows services, some filter drivers and assorted other low-level clutter. That's not unusual for an antivirus, but it can be a problem if it's a drag on your system speed.

AV-Comparatives is one of the third-party test labs that consistently test antivirus software. During its latest round of testing, Bitdefender didn't show any real problems when it came to slowing down computer processes while running. The only noticeable slowdown was seen while opening new applications. Bitdefender tended to slow down the initial opening but didn't affect the programs while being used.

I ran several self-protection tests to see if malware can disable key protections of Bitdefender. This included trying to delete or replace files, suspend or close key processes, stop core services, remove or edit scheduled tasks, unload filter drivers, and change key settings. Bitdefender has always been a very well-defended product, though, and this time was no different: the package shrugged off all attacks and carried on as normal.

Interface

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is designed with simplicity in mind. Its dashboard is laid out intuitively with the most important tools displayed front and center.  This includes scan options and VPN access. Finding additional functions isn't hard using the sign bar with icon navigation buttons. 

Some tools are displayed but aren't available with Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. Clicking these will display a message encouraging you to upgrade to one of Bitdefender's higher-tiered programs in order to use that particular tool. Tools that aren't available do have a lock icon over them to help you see quickly which features aren't available to you.

If the standard dashboard layout doesn't quite suit your needs, you can customize it to remove default features or add new ones. Not interested in the VPN, maybe? In a click or two you could replace it with links to the full system scan, the password manager, disk clean-up module, or a host of other tools. If only everyone was this flexible.

Overall, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus offers a polished and professional interface that's easy and comfortable to use for beginners but also offers the configurability and control that experts need.

Antivirus

When you first start using Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, it will conduct a full system scan. This examines every part of your device to look for any unwanted intruders. Every antivirus software I've tested does this, but Bitdefender takes a lot more time to complete this compared to other programs. 

On average, it takes about 20 minutes for other antivirus to do a full system sweep. Bitdefender, however, takes over an hour. Thankfully I didn't notice any computer slowdown during this scan, so I could continue workings, browsing, playing online, etc., without interruption.

Another scan mode support is Quick Scan. Quick Scan checks the most commonly infected areas. You can schedule Quick Scans for once a day, or weekly if you'd like, and a deeper system scan less often. Bitdefender lets you check individual objects and files, plus it has a bootable rescue environment to assist in cleaning the most stubborn threats.

A Manage Scans tool lets you create new scan types, as well as configuring how the scan works, and setting it up to run on a schedule or on-demand only.  There is also a Custom Scan, which scans in any system location where there might be potential threats. Plus, a Vulnerability Scan, to check for privacy risks in application settings as well as for any critical software updates.

This doesn't quite provide the expert-level options that I've seen from vendors like Avast and Avira (you can't define specific file types to check or archive types you'd like to handle, for instance), but there's more than enough power here for most people. Unfortunately, you can't pin your custom scan type to the main dashboard, so it's always at least three clicks away.

Bitdefender's antivirus settings can't match the geek-level configurability of some of the competition, either, but they're well-judged and focus on the functions you're more likely to need.

You don't get intimidating and overly technical options to scan RAR archives to a nested depth of 4, but not scan TARs, for instance – there's just a simple 'scan archives, yes or no?' setting.

Threat Timeline

During the review process, Bitdefender occasionally displayed its 'threat timeline', with what seems like a detailed explanation of how I nearly got infected. This all looks very impressive, a flow chart with times, app names, and big icons, but in my experience, it doesn't mean very much. 

One timeline started with Outlook launching, told me it then launched Chrome, which executed software_reporter_tool.exe, and Bitdefender then detected a threat. Anyone seeing this might assume they'd received a malicious email, clicked a link, Chrome opened, and launched an app, which in turn ran a malicious program.

But in reality, I ran Outlook as normal; Chrome only launched because I clicked a legitimate link; the link had nothing to do with software_reporter_tool.exe (that's a standard part of Chrome); and the supposed 'threat' (actually a false alarm) was never downloaded in that or any other internet session.

Giving users more information about the source of an infection is a good idea, but during my review at least, Bitdefender's threat timelines caused confusion more than they answered any questions.

Performance

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus scanning speeds are decent, with Quick Scans taking around 15-30 seconds on my test computer. Regular scans started at 50 minutes to check my target files (209,000 of them, 50GB in total.) That's a little slow, and for example, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security took 15 minutes to scan the same data. 

Bitdefender only checks new and changed files in subsequent scans, though, and that makes a huge difference. Antivirus Plus took only 50 seconds to scan my test files in run #2, compared to nine minutes for Trend Micro.

The scanning engine is smart enough to manage simultaneous scans without difficulty, too. If you're running a lengthy full system scan, for instance, you can still run an on-demand scan of a recent download, or anything else you like. A window pops up to display the results of your second scan, while the first scan continues to run in the background.

The total sum of this is a polished set of malware-hunting tools which go well beyond the basics, but remain easy to use for not-so-technical types. Experts might wish for one or two more fine-tuning options, but in general, Bitdefender gets the configurability/ usability balance right.

Protection

To learn how well Bitdefender protects against malware, I looked at the real-world tests conducted by two of the biggest testing labs in the world, AV-Comparatives, and AV-Tests. Both use live malware in real-life scenarios in their testing and have years of data to compare against.

In the latest results by AV-Comparatives, Bitdefender blocked 99.94% of the threats used during testing. This placed Bitdefender in the top-rated solutions with a very good, higher-than-average protection score. A few of the programs that scored higher include Avast, AVG, Norton, and McAfee.

AV-Test uses a different testing methodology than AV-Comparaties but still simulates real-life usage. The latest AV-Test results show Bitdefender receiving perfect scores across the board. In fact, of the 18 programs reviewed by AV-Test, Bitdefender is among only six that earned perfect scores.

No individual reviewer can hope to compete with the testing labs for thoroughness, but I was keen to confirm their verdicts by seeing how Bitdefender Antivirus Plus handled a couple of ransomware threats. I used a few malware test files on my own test computers to learn first-hand how Bitdefender handles threats.

The first, a real-world ransomware specimen, was blocked almost immediately, with Bitdefender killing the process before it could cause any harm.

The second was a custom ransomware simulator of my own. It's about as simple a malware sample as you could get, but it's also something Bitdefender would never have seen before, allowing me to evaluate how Antivirus Plus performs when presented with brand-new threats.

I ran the test software, and in just a fraction of a second, Bitdefender's engine cut in and displayed an alert. Not only had it detected and killed the test process, but Bitdefender's Ransomware Remediation technology successfully restored the ten files the software had managed to encrypt.

While this was a great performance, it did show a few small issues.

Firstly, the Ransomware Remediation feature isn't turned on by default. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus prompts you to enable it, but if you're not paying attention, you could lose at least a handful of files in an attack.

Next, the package didn't quarantine the simulator, either, despite detecting it performing ransomware-like actions. I ran it multiple times, and when I scanned the executable later, Bitdefender flagged it as 'clean.'

The company told me that threats are removed only if they're detected by the signature layer. Mine was picked up by the behavior layer, which will kill an offending process, but not try to remove it.

Other antivirus software I tested went further, quarantining the test executable to prevent it from running again, and on balance that's the approach I prefer. But this isn't a major deal, as Bitdefender's gentler approach doesn't seem to have any practical effect on system security, as although I was able to repeatedly run the same threat, Bitdefender blocked it each time.

That's a major improvement over many competitors, which either miss the simulator entirely or aren't able to stop it from destroying at least some files (Norton Antivirus Plus lost 57.) Overall, Bitdefender provides very capable and effective all-around ransomware protection.

Blocking malicious sites

Bitdefender's web protection module monitors your internet access and blocks malicious and phishing links.

AV-Comparatives' tested Bitdefender for its July 2022 Anti-Phishing Certification Test. The results were a big improvement over the previous year's results with Bitdefender earning a 96% detection rate.

I've previously tested Bitdefender against 139 brand new suspect URLs (malicious and phishing) provided by independent security testing company MRG Effitas. These were so new – many reported only hours ago – that they hadn't all even been verified yet, making them a real challenge to block.

The results were very positive, though, with Bitdefender blocking 73% of my test links. For comparison, Avast Premium Security stopped 55% of the same set of links, while Windows Defender recognized just 30%.

Don't be distracted by the low percentages: this is a measure of how quickly a vendor responds to new threats, not your overall protection against any dangerous links. The main takeaway point from this test is Bitdefender was giving me significantly better protection than others against even the very latest malicious sites.

When you reach a legitimate site, Bitdefender's Anti-Tracker browser extension aims to detect and block the most intrusive web trackers, then displays a count of these in its address bar icon.

I pointed my browser at the newspaper site dailymail.co.uk and the extension reported blocking a chunky 35 trackers in two categories: Advertising (29) and Site Analytics (6). (Other categories include Social Media, Customer Interaction, and 'Essential.')

To compare Anti-Tracker's abilities with the ad-blocking competition, I revisited the same site with the excellent uBlock Origin activated, and this time Anti-Tracker blocked only five trackers. You can get much the same functionality for free, then, but it looks like Bitdefender Anti-Tracker does offer some additional privacy benefits. (And of course, as I did in my tests, you can run Anti-Tracker alongside your existing ad-blocker to get the best of all worlds.)

Password manager

Wallet is Bitdefender's password manager. Along with regular website logins, it's able to store credit card details, wireless network passwords, application logins, and license keys, email server credentials and details, and assorted personal information (name, date of birth, address, email, phone number(s), and more). Wallet is able to create multiple password databases and sync them across all your Bitdefender-equipped devices.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus automatically installed the Wallet extension on Internet Explorer and Firefox and gave me the option to install it on Chrome, but paid no attention at all to Edge or Opera.

I found Wallet wasn't as easy to use as top competitors like Dashlane: it didn't add icons to text fields, didn't always capture username and password fields as I entered them, sometimes failed to fill in forms correctly, and couldn't automatically submit forms. However, it just about handled the basics and is a worthwhile addition to the package.

Online banking protection

Safepay is a secure and isolated browser that protects online banking and other transactions from snoopers – or maybe even malware that has somehow installed itself on your system.

Many other security vendors also claim to have similar secure browsers, but Bitdefender goes further than most. Safepay makes real efforts to isolate itself from other processes on your PC, running on a separate desktop and preventing screen grabbers and keyloggers from recording what you're doing.

I checked this by setting up a custom keylogger of my own and using a commercial screen capture tool to take snapshots of my activities every 15 seconds. Safepay worked perfectly, with no recorded keystrokes and plain white screenshots only.

Bitdefender has considered long-term storage, too. Once the session is closed, Safepay clears all temporary files and leaves no trace of my activities. 

Much like the safe browsing competition, Safepay doesn't support installing third-party extensions, as they open you up to many more privacy problems. But it does have a handful of useful built-in extras, including a virtual keyboard as an extra defense again keyloggers, and a pop-up blocker to protect you from web trickery.

Safepay isn't just some throwaway extra, then - it's a real highlight of the suite, and using it for the most confidential web tasks could go a long way to keeping you safe.

More features

A Vulnerability Scan checks your system for missing application updates and critical Windows patches, as well as weak Windows account passwords, and simple Wi-Fi network issues, and includes more checks for altered and poorly configured system settings.

I turned Autorun on, a risky setting that can automatically run software when you plug in a removable drive or media, and the Vulnerability Scan warned us and offered to fix the issue. It also spotted some far more obscure options - my system wasn't restricting access to site management policies for security zones, for instance - and, more usefully, spotted missing Java and Firefox updates.

This is a basic tool, with one or two usability issues. There's no 'Fix All' button, so you must choose an action for each individual item. You can't tell the Vulnerability Scan to ignore a particular issue, either; even if you're entirely happy with having unrestricted access to site management policies, it's going to warn you about the 'problem' each and every time.

Still, there is value here, particularly with the checks for missing updates, and overall, the Vulnerability Scan is a worthwhile addition to the suite.

VPN

Last, but not least, there's the VPN. You're limited to only 200MB, which is enough for the lightest of uses, picking up email or carrying out some confidential web transactions via public Wi-Fi. But it's easy to use, has servers that cover 51 countries, and support for Hotspot Shield's Catapult Hydra protocol ensures decent speeds. It's worth having, even in its limited form (but check out this full Bitdefender Premium VPN review if you'd like to go further.)

Final verdict

This is a strong all-around antivirus tool that does a good job of keeping even brand-new, undiscovered threats at bay and throws in some useful extras, too. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is an absolute must for your PC security shortlist.

Bitdefender Internet Security

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus has way more functionality than most antivirus apps, but it's still missing some key security suite features. And that's where Bitdefender Internet Security comes in, adding essentials like a firewall, spam filter, and parental controls.

A privacy layer protects you from webcam hijacking by stopping unauthorized apps from accessing your webcam, and a microphone monitor identifies all the apps using the microphone.

As I mentioned at the outset, Bitdefender Internet Security is reasonably priced and only marginally more expensive than Antivirus Plus. For example, a three-device, one-year Internet Security license costs $10 more in year one ($34.99 vs $24.99), and $25 more on renewal ($84.99 vs $59.99). You could spend more than that on a commercial parental controls package or spam filter alone.

• Get Bitdefender Internet Security for $52 off by clicking here if you live in the US or UK or alternatively click here if you live in Australia!

Firewall

Bitdefender's firewall works exactly as you would hope, automatically blocking incoming attacks, intelligently deciding which apps are safe to allow online, and which apps really, really aren't. Most people can leave the firewall to do its work, never seeing any prompts, or having to tweak a single setting.

If you're more experienced in the ways of networks, you can take plenty of low-level control, drilling down to the rule level and tweaking settings for protocols, ports, IP addresses, and more.

Bitdefender exposes this functionality carefully, though, so newbies aren't hit with all the gory details immediately. A smartly designed interface begins by enabling users to block or allow network access for individual apps, for instance, with a simple on/ off switch. The Rule Editor enables setting custom local and remote IP addresses, ports, and more, but again, you're not hit with all that complexity unless you go looking for it, and on balance, it's relatively easy to use.

Spam filter

Internet Security comes with a simple spam filter, which in theory should have automatically added a tab to my Outlook setup. This didn't happen for me, and digging deeper, I found an Outlook alert reporting that 'Bitdefender Antispam... caused Outlook to crash. As a result, it was disabled.'

Enabling it manually, I found the filter has only a bare minimum of features, little more than Outlook's own junk filter (blacklists and whitelists, Is Spam and Not Spam options to mark misidentified emails, simple blocking of messages with Asian or Cyrillic characters).

This lack of control doesn't seem to affect functionality, though, with my brief tests suggesting the filter blocks more than 90% of junk mail, while falsely flagging less than 1% of legitimate emails as spam. This was only a very quick check, but it suggests that Bitdefender's filter matches the best of the specialist antispam competition.

Parental controls

Bitdefender's Parental Controls feature has a reasonable set of features for monitoring and controlling your children's digital activities. You're able to block websites by content, restrict application use, block device usage for specified periods (like bedtime) or set a daily limit of screen time which includes both mobile and desktop devices. 

After creating a profile for each child at Bitdefender Central (your account area on the Bitdefender website), your rules are enforced by Windows, Mac, Android and iOS clients. Return to Bitdefender Central at any time and you'll find reports on your child's activities: device usage, apps launched, websites visited, your child's latest phone contacts, and more.

The web dashboard displays your child's location on a map (assuming they're using an iOS or Android device.) Geofencing support enables marking an area as restricted and raises the alarm if your child goes where they really shouldn't.

It's a decent feature set, especially for a security suite, where normally you're left with the absolute basics only. It hasn't changed much over the past few years, though - the iOS app hasn't had a significantly named new feature for several years - and app store ratings of 2.1 (Android) and 1.7 (iOS) - suggest users aren't happy. If parental controls are a priority for you, run plenty of in-depth tests during your Bitdefender trial before you commit to spending any cash.

Webcam and microphone protection

A Webcam Protection module gives you control over which applications can access your webcam. This has more options than usual, with settings to block access to all but your chosen applications, block browsers only, or disable the webcam for everything. I tested this with my custom command line capture tool, and Internet Security correctly notified me that it was trying to access the webcam, and blocked it when requested.

The Microphone Monitor takes a slightly more basic approach, raising alerts for apps that access the microphone, but not allowing you to block them, or setting up rules to block all future microphone access.

This clearly isn't as useful as it could be, but it's vastly better than most competitors, who typically have no microphone-related features at all. I'm happy to see it added to the package, and hopefully, it'll gain features in upcoming releases.

Bitdefender Total Security

The top-of-the-range Bitdefender Total Security extends the range with a familiar set of PC maintenance tools, including modules to highlight large files, remove disk-hogging junk and optimize the boot process.

Total Security's clean-up tools found 1.2GB of hard drive junk on my test PC. Meanwhile, the free CCleaner located 3.4GB, and even the standard Windows Disk Cleanup could free up 1.53 GB.

The Privacy Cleaner aims to clear up your internet history, but it only covered Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer on my system. CCleaner does much better, this time, also deleting privacy-related traces of Edge, Brave, Windows, and assorted apps.

Bitdefender throws in a File Shredder to securely delete sensitive files, but again, there's nothing that you can't find elsewhere for free.

The real benefit of upgrading to Bitdefender Total Security is you get apps for Android, Mac, and iOS devices, as well as PCs. And although the new apps can't match the power of the Windows edition, they're well worth having.

The Mac app looks out for malware and adware and includes Time Machine protection to keep your backups safe from ransomware. Top-quality anti-phishing blocks access to malicious links, and the 200MB a day version of Bitdefender VPN is thrown in.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS is mostly about detecting malicious websites, but it does this well, and that alone could save you from real problems. As a bonus, an account privacy tool raises an alert if your web accounts are involved in a privacy breach.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android includes everything you get in the Mac and iOS builds, and adds on-installation scanning for dangerous apps, an app locker to prevent others from accessing your personal data, and anti-theft to remotely locate, lock or wipe a missing device.

You can get a lot of this functionality elsewhere for free – there's no shortage of app locker or anti-theft apps, for instance – but as I discussed earlier, Bitdefender's malicious URL blocking outperforms much of the competition, and could justify the installation on its own.

If you're still in doubt, check the prices. A baseline Bitdefender Internet Security license protects up to three PCs for $35 in year one and $85 on renewal. Upgrading to Bitdefender Total Security protects up to five devices, which could be any mix of Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS, but only costs $40 in year one, and $95 on renewal.

Covering up to 10 devices with Total Security still only costs $45 in year one, and $105 on renewal, and you can save more money by adding years to the license.

• Get Bitdefender Total Security for $59 off by clicking here if you live in the US or UK or alternatively click here if you live in Australia!

There may be better deals around, depending on the features you need. Avira Prime is a little more expensive at $100 a year to protect five devices, for instance, and there's no introductory discount. But it also gives you unlimited access to Avira's Phantom VPN across all your devices, a very valuable extra.

If you're looking purely at antivirus and security, though, Bitdefender Total Security 2022 is an impressive package that is crammed with valuable features and functionality. If you're looking for a new all-platform antivirus, it's a must-see.

Want to compare Bitdefender to its rivals? Check out our best antivirus guide

Norton has remained a strong, antivirus software provider for many years, and it keeps packing in the security, even into its most basic subscriptions. Your digital and physical identities are protected with all tiers of Norton antivirus. You can also take advantage of Norton's secured, online cloud storage, and its password manager with any of its antivirus solutions.

One of the best tools available with higher-tiered programs is unlimited access to Norton Secure VPN. This program hides your IP address and online browser history so nothing can be traced back to you. It's just another great tool for protecting you in multiple aspects of your life.

Norton's antivirus software works on all devices and does a decent job stopping malware. Most of its long list of security tools also works on these devices, so you're always protected. This makes it a top-notch Mac antivirus and Android antivirus solution.

Norton 360 subscriptions, including Nortn 360 Standard and Norton 360 Deluxe, come with dark web monitoring. This service keeps an eye out for your email addresses, passwords, and other identifying information that may be compromised and alerts you so you can take precautions to better protect your online and physical identity.

You can choose a Norton 360 subscription with LifeLock identity theft protections or add this as a stand-alone service to any other Norton subscription. This tool takes identity theft monitoring to the next level and helps you restore your identity - both virtual and physical - if your information is stolen.

Other Norton tools available include parental controls and privacy monitoring. Plus, if you subscribe to Norton and take part in its auto-renewal program, you're covered by Norton's 100% Virus Protection Promise. This guarantee promises to keep your system clear of malware. If it ever does become infected, Norton's support team will work hard to clean up your device.

• You can sign up for Norton antivirus solutions here

Plans and pricing

At first glance, Norton may seem a little pricy compared to other antivirus programs, but competitors, such as Bitdefender, don't have the number of protection tools that Norton does, and definitely don't include advanced security features in its basic antivirus programs.

Even looking long-term at the subscription renewal prices, which jump pretty high after the introductory first year, still average out to a decent, per month cost considering what you get.

Norton AntiVirus Plus starts at $19.99 for the first year and jumps up to $59.99 for subsequent subscription years. It only covers a single device, but you do get 2GB of cloud backup and Norton's password manager. If you choose to auto-renew, AntiVirus Plus will cover your devices with its Ivrus ProtectionPromise.

With Norton 360 Standard, you get unlimited access to Norton Secure VPN and dark web monitoring services. You'll be alerted if Norton finds your personal information being bought or sold illegally along with some tips on how to secure your information. This software protects a maximum of three devices and starts at $39.99. After the first year to price increases to $89.99.

Norton 360 Deluxe lets you protect up to five different devices for $49.99 for the first year. It builds on the generous offerings of its Standard program by protecting against unauthorized access to your webcam through its Privacy Monitor. It includes parental controls and bumps up the amount of cloud backup space you get to 50GB.

After the first year, Norton 360 Deluxe increases its subscription price to $109.99

Upgrading to Norton 360 with LifeLock Select gives you the ultimate security for both your devices and your personal identity. LifeLock is a full identity theft protection service that also helps restore your identity if it is ever stolen. by letting you tap into its identity theft restoration specialists and a million-dollar insurance package.

Other perks to using Norton 360 with LifeLock include protection for up to 10 devices and 250GB of secured cloud backup storage. This offering starts at $99.99 for the first year with the price climbing to $179.99 for each subsequent year.

You don't have to make up your mind before buying. Each of Norton's antivirus software is available for you to try out for 7 days. You do need to provide a credit card, though it won't be charged until after the trial period is up. Just make sure you turn off the auto-renewal within the 7 days to avoid inadvertently being charged for the program before you're ready to fully commit.

Compare Norton Subscriptions

Norton AntiVirus Plus

Setup

Norton AntiVirus Plus has both an online and a desktop portion of the installation. For those new to antivirus, used to solely desktop applications, or that aren't very tech-savvy, the process may feel daunting. But Norton walks you through every step.

The package grabbed 1GB of storage space, average for a suite with this level of functionality, and added only two major background processes to my system.

Running PCMark Professional before and after installation, though, I found my score dropped by 4.8%. That's better than the 5.9% drop I saw with Sophos Home Premium, but most packages only see a 1-2% drop, and Avira and McAfee had barely any impact at all.

AV-Comparatives' October 2022 Performance Test showed Norton performing a little better, but it was still a mid-range. AV-Tests showed similar results with Norton landing squarely in the middle with an average performance score of 5.5/6.

Malware often tries to disable antivirus before launching a full attack, so the best antivirus makes real efforts to protect itself from attack. I test this by running various attacks of my own, including closing processes, deleting files, unloading drivers, and disabling services. I was able to close the process powering Norton's user dashboard, but the package's core files, services, and drivers were fully protected, and my security remained active at all times.

Antivirus

Norton AntiVirus Plus has an odd interface, split across two windows. 

Its My Norton screen looks good, but makes poor use of screen real estate, with the bulk of its dashboard taken up by a wallpaper image of someone trekking along a mountain trail, a handful of buttons to launch key tools, and most of the rest being just white space.

There's more functionality and control available, but you must open a separate Security window to access it, and I found it took longer than expected to find my way around Norton's many features.

Antivirus is relatively straightforward, though. Smart Scans are only a click away, whatever interface you're using. These run a Quick Scan for malware, identify network security problems and check for what Norton calls 'Advanced Issues' (in practice this just gave me a list of tracking cookies to delete.)

A separate Full System is on hand if you need it. And a highly flexible custom scan feature gives you all kinds of options. I set up an example to automatically scan my Downloads folder every three hours, for instance, but only when my system was idle and on AC power.

Scan times are reasonable, with 50GB of test data taking 29 minutes for the first scan, dropping to 4:13 next time, within the range I'd expect for this type of suite. Bitdefender's first scan was slower (50 minutes), but it dropped to 50 seconds next time; Avira began a little faster at 26 minutes, but there's no 'scan only new and changed files'-type optimization, and it took the same 26 minutes each time.

An option to run Norton's Power Eraser gets you a more aggressive detection and repair technique which might remove trickier threats. That's welcome (it's a capable tool), but you don't need to buy the package to get it. Norton Power Eraser is available for free on the Norton website.

But if you're unsure whether you’re infected and just want to find out more, a Norton Insight tool reports on the reputation of various files on your system. 

This works like a security-focused version of Task Manager. The main window lists running processes, with a Trust rating for each, an indication of how many others use them, their system impact and more.

This has some major benefits for expert users. Even if you've been infected by a threat so new that Norton can't detect it yet, Insight may still be able to point to a possible issue, highlighting active running processes or loaded modules which you don't recognize, and it's never seen before. If you've enough Windows experience to go manually hunting for malware, this is a very handy tool to have on your side.

Protection

AV-Comparatives' Real-World Protection Test is a comprehensive benchmark that pits 16 of the top antivirus engines against some of the very latest malware.

Norton’s results jumped up from previous results to earn a 99.99% overall protection score. The only place it seemed to struggle was with false positives, meaning it tagged legitimate files as malware. But it stayed consistent with blocking legitimate threats, including zero-day malware.

The latest AV-Test's Windows 10 Home User pitted Norton against 17 competitors. As far as protection, there wasn't anything Norton couldn't stop. it received perfect marks across the board for malware detection. With an overall industry standard of 99.4% detection, Norton clearly made sure to do better.

I ran some simple tests of my own, using common malware-like tricks to download malicious files with standard Windows tools. Norton AntiVirus Plus performed well, blocking most of my simulated attacks at the behavioral level before the files could be downloaded. And although it ignored my exploit attempts a couple of times, the file detection layer detected and quarantined the file just as soon as it hit my hard drive.

I wasn't finished yet, though. I've also created a custom ransomware-like program that spiders through a test folder tree, opening and encrypting common images, videos, and document types. As it's never been released, Norton couldn't have seen it before, making this a good test of its ability to detect and block ransomware by behavior alone.

I ran my test threat, Norton AntiVirus Plus detected and killed it, and a few seconds later, warned me about the problem. While that's good, I found my threat had encrypted 57 files before it was stopped. In previous tests, I found both Bitdefender recognized the danger after it had accessed a maximum of ten files. And even better, they recovered the originals, ensuring I didn't lose any data at all.

Browsing protection

Norton AntiVirus Plus uses multiple layers of protection to help keep you safe online.

Norton Safe Search is an Ask-powered search environment that highlights trusted and dubious websites; if you'd prefer to stick with Google, the Norton Safe Web extension adds site ratings to your search results; and if you hate weighing down your browser with security extensions, just ignore them - the main Norton engine detects and blocks malicious domains at the network level, anyway, allowing it to protect all your applications.

This all worked well for me, blocking the malicious URLs I tried without difficulty. I tried accessing them from a tiny browser I'd written myself, to confirm URLs were blocked at the networking level, and that worked, too; my app was blocked whenever it tried to access the page, with Norton displaying a detailed alert explaining why.

Firewall

Norton AntiVirus Plus, as the name suggests, isn't just about squashing malware. It also has some very useful bonus features.

An intelligent firewall lets you know if untrusted programs are trying to make an internet connection and asks if these should be allowed. While that's a potential hassle for the user, I found it only happened in the most extreme circumstances, and I was given plenty of information to help me decide.

Instead of the usual 'dubious.exe is trying to get online, allow? ' warnings, for instance, the firewall warned me that my test program wasn't digitally signed, had been released less than a week ago, and had very few users, as well as showing me the URL it was trying to reach. You're able to allow or block the connection in a couple of clicks, and optionally have the firewall remember your decision, ensuring you won't be asked again.

If you know what you're doing, heading off to the Settings dialog gets you access to all the gory low-level technical details, right down to the detailed rules governing each protocol and traffic type.

Backup

The big surprise with Norton AntiVirus Plus is its bundled backup tool. It is a hosted service that comes with 2GB of online backup space in AntiVirus Plus (it supports local destinations, too.)

The app is seriously short on features. If you're hoping to get control of archiving, encryption, or versioning, forget it - there's none of that here.

I've no complaints about ease of use, though. By default, the app backs up your Office documents, pictures, music, contacts, internet favorites, and so on. If that totals less than 2GB, you can back up your data to the web in a click; if it's more, you're able to exclude individual files, folders, or entire files, or you can choose a local drive as the destination, instead.

Backups can be run on demand, or scheduled to automatically run every day, week, or month, and a 'Run only at idle time' option should ensure it won't get in the way when you're busy.

There's not a lot of power here, and when Google Drive gives you 15GB storage for free, Norton's 2GB doesn't exactly seem generous. It's 2GB more than you'll get with most antivirus packages, though. Upgrading gets you more, for example, 50GB with Norton 360 Deluxe. The ability to set up a genuinely useful online backup in seconds is welcome, too, especially for users who aren't so technical, and the service does add some value to the package.

Performance

Norton AntiVirus Plus includes a handful of simple maintenance tools designed to speed up your PC. While it isn't a lot, each one is effective in helping your system run faster.

Optimize Disk is a disk defrag tool which rearranges how files are placed on your hard drive to maybe improve performance. At least, that's the theory: the technology doesn't make much of a difference with modern SSD drives. And when I tried the Optimize Disk on my test system, it appeared to be using the standard Windows defrag tool underneath, anyway. If you're interested, you can try that now, for free (click a drive in Explorer, click Drive Tools > Optimize.)

File Cleanup is one of the most underpowered junk file finders I've seen. Run the tool, it deletes Windows, Chrome and Internet Explorer temporary files, and - that's it. There's no attempt to confirm whether you really want to wipe these files, they're just deleted immediately, and it doesn't even tell you up-front how much space it's freed up. (The information is available, but you must click a couple of links to find it.)

There's really no reason for this tool to exist, as it doesn't fully clear your Chrome history, and even Windows' standard Disk Cleanup tool does a significantly better job of finding system leftovers. I ran Norton's File Cleanup, then tried Disk Cleanup, and it identified 1.43GB of extra files I could safely wipe. 

The pick of the performance tools, by far, is the Startup Manager. Not only does this display the programs set up to launch along with Windows, but it also tells you their level of resource usage, and how commonly they're found across Norton's other customers, and gives you the chance to delay the app's start or disable it entirely.

There's a surprising amount of detail about each app's performance, too. In a click or two you're able to check on a summary of an app's CPU and RAM use, disk reads and writes, and you can even view a scrolling graph showing the app's CPU usage over the past ten minutes.

The average user probably won't care much about any of that, but if you're more experienced, and genuinely looking to identify the most resource-grabbing processes on your system, Norton's performance monitoring is a helpful extra that you won't get with any of the competition.

Final verdict

Powerful, and with more features than some high-end suites, there's a lot to like about Norton AntiVirus Plus. The package didn't perform quite as well as the top suites in my anti-ransomware test, but it blocked the threat, and overall, it's a quality antivirus app and security suite. Well worth a try.

Norton 360 Standard

Norton 360 Standard, the baseline plan of the Norton 360 range, is essentially Norton AntiVirus Plus with webcam protection, an upgrade from 2GB to 10GB of backup space, and unlimited use of Norton Secure VPN for a single device.

This isn't just for PC and Mac anymore. Android and iOS apps enable protecting your phone or tablet, too.

Prices start low at $25 for a one-device, one-year license, rising to $85 on renewal. That first-year price is a good deal, especially if you'll use the VPN and don't mind the single-device restriction - most specialist VPN providers charge $40 or more for their one-year plans (although they'll typically cover five devices).

VPN

Unusually for a bundled VPN, Norton Secure VPN is fully integrated with the suite interface. There's no need to open extra app windows or scroll through long lists of countries to find what you need: just click the Turn On button and you're automatically connected to the fastest server outside of your country.

That scores well for anonymity, as websites will always think you're in another country, but it could be inconvenient if geoblocking leaves you unable to access some local sites. 

If that's an issue, you can switch back to the standard 'choose a country' list. There's a decent selection of 31 countries to choose from, but it's strictly country-only, with no region or city-level options. 

The location list doesn't have a Favorites system. The countries appear in a tiny box that only has room to display three locations at once, too, forcing you to spend more time scrolling to find what you need. 

The VPN has recently added a host of new settings. It can automatically connect when you access insecure networks; ad and tracker-blocking help preserve your web privacy; split tunneling enables deciding which apps use the tunnel, and which don't; and a kill switch tries to protect you if the connection drops.

Some of these features perform well. Auto-connect and split tunneling work as advertised, for instance. And the app now properly raised a notification if my connection dropped, ensuring I knew when my traffic was unprotected.

The kill switch wasn't as successful. It kicked in whenever I forcibly dropped the VPN connection, ensuring my real IP address didn't leak: good news. But the kill switch blocked my internet so well that the app couldn't reconnect: I had to turn it off before we could connect again. 

My performance tests showed Norton achieving 280-290Mbps on a 1Gbps connection from a UK data center. That's good for an IKEv2 connection, but NordVPN and many WireGuard-equipped VPNs reached 750Mbps and more.

It was a similar mixed story on unblocking, where the VPN got me into BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime, but not US Netflix or Disney+.

Put it all together and Norton Secure VPN is far from the worst service I've seen. But it's not a great one, either. The VPN adds some value to Norton 360, but it doesn't begin to compete with the best of the specialist VPN providers.

Webcam protection

Norton 360 includes its SafeCam webcam protection, which alerts you to untrusted apps trying to access your camera, and gives you the chance to allow or block them

That's not as much hassle as it sounds. By default, SafeCam automatically allows known good apps to access the camera, so you'll rarely see any alerts. And if SafeCam does ask permission for something, choose the 'always allow' or 'always block' options, it'll remember your decision, and you won't be prompted again

I found this worked exactly as it should: my most trustworthy tool automatically allowed its capture, while my little-known app raised an alert. That works as a default setting for me, but if you prefer, you can turn off the 'automatically allow good apps' option to be prompted for everything, or you can turn off SafeCam entirely.

Mobile apps

Norton 360 Mobile Security for Android is a capable app that includes all the key tools from the desktop edition and adds a pile of more mobile-friendly extras.

Automatic and on-demand scanning catches malware before it can launch, for instance, while web protection keeps you away from dangerous links. Testing shows Norton's engine is very accurate, with AV-Test's Android reports rating it a maximum 6/6 for protection in all six tests over the past year (November 2020-September 2021.)

The app includes Norton's Secure VPN, allowing you to protect your wireless traffic with a tap.

Elsewhere, Norton 360 helps you avoid issues by displaying key details on apps from within Google Play before you install them. You'll see if the app has privacy risks, includes intrusive ads, makes excessive use of your battery and data, and more.

Recent additions include SMS filtering which checks texts for dubious phishing links, and the ability to detect and warn you if you're connected to a potentially unsure network.

Norton Mobile Security for iOS is simpler. You still get Norton's excellent web protection, along with the new SMS filtering, and a Wi-Fi security layer to alert you to dangerous networks: more than enough to be useful.

The mobile apps don't quite have all the features you'll see with competing apps (there's no anti-theft, for instance), but there's still a lot to like here. And if you're unsure, check them out - they have trial versions available.

More features

Norton 360's spam filter doesn't get much attention on the website, maybe because it's relatively basic. It mostly only integrates with Outlook, for instance (although it will work with Windows Mail on Windows 7), and it's strictly POP3 and SMTP only - there's no support for POP3 with SSL, IMAP, or Exchange accounts.

The filter has no way to tweak its strength, either. If you don't get the results you need, your only option is to add email addresses to Allowed and Blocked lists.

I've seen better spam filters, but you don't have to use them. If it doesn't work for you, turn it off and find an alternative.

Users in some countries - Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, UK, US - also get Norton's Dark Web Monitoring, one of the features of its LifeLock Identity Theft Protection service. Set it up and LifeLock monitors Dark Web sites where stolen data is regularly traded, and if your email address turns up, you'll get a warning.

Many vendors offer similar-sounding features, but if you're comparing packages, be sure to check the details.

Smaller AVs sometimes advertise 'data breach monitoring', for instance, but expect you to run searches yourself. In many cases, they use the Have I Been Pwned database, too, which you can check yourself, for free, whenever you like.

Norton's Dark Web Monitoring is powered by a commercial identity theft protection service, and there's no manual searching required. You just get on with your life, and the package keeps watch in the background and raises an alert if your details turn up in a breach. Much more convenient.

Final verdict

Norton 360 Standard is all about its Secure VPN. If you'll use it, and don't mind the single-device restriction, it looks like a very good buy. If the VPN doesn't work for you, there's not enough else here to justify choosing the suite. Either look at upgrading to a higher Norton 360 plan, adding support for more devices and the full identity theft protection plan, or expand your horizons and check out some other vendors.

Norton 360 Deluxe

Upgrading from Norton 360 Standard to Deluxe is mostly about the numbers. 

Forget the measly single device license, for instance - Deluxe covers up to five PCs, Macs, phones, or tablets. You're able to install and use the VPN on all those devices, too. And your online backup space leaps from 10GB to a generous 50GB.

That's more than enough to justify the price of $35 in year one, $105 on renewal. (Norton 360 Standard is only $10 cheaper initially at $25 for the first year, and $85 afterward.

There's more, though, in the shape of Norton's Parental Control system. It goes way beyond the usual security suite basics with detailed content filtering, GPS tracking for mobile devices, and in-depth monitoring which allows you to see everything from the search terms your kids use to the websites they visit and the videos they watch. It's a worthwhile addition to the suite, but beware, this doesn't work with Macs.

It all makes for a quality suite that compares well with the competition. Bitdefender Total Security is a great suite that outperforms Norton in some areas (it stopped my ransomware simulator and recovered all damaged files, for instance), but it doesn't have the Norton 360 VPN, online backup, or dark web monitoring, and yet it's priced at a very similar $35 for a five device, one-year license, and $90 on renewal.

If there's the slightest chance that you might benefit from covering more than a single device, then, Norton 360 Deluxe looks like the best general-purpose option in the range. One for your shortlist.

Norton 360 with LifeLock

Upgrading from Norton 360 Deluxe to Norton 360 with LifeLock Select gets US users full-featured identity theft protection and other welcome benefits.

The baseline Norton 360 with LifeLock Select plan covers the identity theft basics - credit monitoring, SSN and credit alerts, stolen wallet protection, up to a million dollars to compensate you for lost funds and expenses, and US-based identity theft restoration specialists to help you recover from any problems. It's priced at $100 in year one, $150 on renewal

The top-of-the-range Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus supports unlimited devices, includes 500GB backup space, increases the compensation you can get for identity theft expenses and losses, and adds features like credit reports from three bureaus, and 401(k) and investment activity alerts. It's $262 for the first year, $350 after that

There's a lot of value here, even if you're not entirely sure about the identity theft protection. Use Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus to cover 20 devices for a year, for instance, and you're paying just $12.60 each.

LifeLock is the headline feature, of course, but there isn't enough space to fully cover that here. If you're interested, go take a look at the Norton site to find out exactly what you get with each package, then compare it with the competition, and see who comes out on top.

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