What Windows antivirus do you use? (2020)

Here is the 2020 poll for the anti-virus/anti-malware (AV) products you run on your Windows computers.

This is the first time I have included all the AV publishers I could find so there are fifty-five options plus Other and None. The main disadvantage of this many options is that it is a long way to get to the bottom of the list to vote or toggle the view.

Important: Neither GlassWire or myself are recommending any of the options listed in this poll.

Click on this to see the details and differences from the 2019 Windows AV poll
  • One poll which includes all the AV publishers I could find
  • Five votes up from three votes in 2019 so you can include offline scanners you also use.
    I could have limited this to online scanners only except there are many useful free offline scanners, e.g. the VirusTotal web scanner which I’ve also chosen to add because it is an AV feature in GlassWire itself.
  • Each vote remains public so others can see what you have voted for.
  • This poll will automatically close one day into 2021. You can change your votes at any time before that.
  • The options are an alphabetical list of publishers rather than products. Other is the last option. This is unchanged but worth restating:
    • Where a product may not be known by the publisher name I’ve also added the brand name e.g. “VIPRE (also ThreatTrack)”
    • Where a brand may be much better known than the publisher, I have used that e.g. “nProtect (by INCA)”.
    • Handling subsidiaries could be done two ways. AVG, for example, is owned by AVAST but I have kept is as a separate option so we can see the figures. Another example used to be Symantec and Norton but
      this has been resolved because the Symantec company has split: the consumer AV division became NortonLifeLock been; and the enterprise AV division was bought by Broadcom which also got the Symantec brand.
  • All links are to Wikipedia articles. This is for safety because, in the past, AV makers have gone out of business and their websites have been used for malicious purposes. But this does mean that several publishers don’t have articles on Wikipedia so there is no link unless it is to an AV article where they are mentioned.
  • In case you are wondering, I removed polls by license type for reasons given in 2019: it is confusing when your product can be in more than one category; there are too many product names; and some categories were totally dominated by a few products.
  • If you have suggestions or issues with what I’ve included or omitted then leave a reply and I can look at these suggestions/issues when we create the 2021 poll.

If you use GlassWire for Android then try the Android AV poll

Select up to five of these AV publishers. If you can’t find your publisher in the poll then check “Other” and add a post/reply to tell us the name of the publisher or the product. Several of these options were only identified because they were mentioned in the previous poll.

Thanks for participating.

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@Remah

What a great detailed poll for desktop antivirus users! I see Malwarebytes is winning so far, just like it was winning in 2019.

I see VirusTotal is listed here even though it’s technically not necessarily an antivirus (just to be clear, I think it should stay in the list as you posted it). You can analyze files using the VirusTotal API inside GlassWire for free for all paid/free users.

Go to the top left GlassWire menu and choose “settings” then choose “VirusTotal”.

Details on how to use this feature are in our help guide. https://www.glasswire.com/userguide/#Virus_Total

Advanced System Optimizer is also amazing software. Clean your computer’s hard drive and make Windows much faster.

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I’m using Dr.Web it seems pretty good to me

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Dr.Web is in the poll so you could vote for it.

I’ve been thinking about the 2021 poll so it would help me if anyone has discovered new anti-virus or anti-malware products to add to the list.

For your interest only, here’s a summary of the results of the antivirus/antimalware polls.

By latest share of votes:

Antivirus Free? Since 2018 2019 2020 2021
Malwarebytes Y 2006 ? 34% 44% 41%
Windows Defender Y 2006 26% 41% 28% 31%
Bitdefender Y 2001 12% 15% 14% 17%
ESET Y 1987 8% 6% 12% 9%
Avast/AVG Y 1988 24% 13% 8% 7%
Kaspersky Y 1997 6% 9% 8% 7%
VirusTotal Y 2004 ? 9% 8% 6%
Broadcom Symantec Y 1991 5% 3% 2% 3%
WebRoot Y 2011 4% 4% 6% 4%
SUPERAntiSpyware N 2002 ? ? 6% 4%
Heimdal N 2010 ? ? 6% 4%
McAfee Y 1988 5% - 4% 4%
Avira Y 1986 9% 4% 4% 3%
VIPRE N 1994 ? ? 4% 3%
Sophos N 1985 2% 1% 2% 1%
Bullguard Y 2002 ? ? 2% 1%
PC-Matic N 2009 ? ? 2% 1%
Zemana Y 2010 ? ? 2% 1%
Emsi Y 2006 ? ? 2% 1%
Norton Y 1991 ? ? ? 1%
F-Secure Y 1994 - - 2% 1%
Comodo Y 2008 - - 2% 1%
HP Sure Click/Bromium N 2012 ? ? ? 1%
Dr. Web N 1992 - - - 1%
Cylance N 2018 - 2% - -
Qihoo 360 Y 2013 3% - - -
Panda Y 2009 2% - - -

Note that the results:

  • are not statistically rigorous and are unlikely to be statistically significant between years.
  • are not representative of all GlassWire users but only of the forum users who have voted.
  • are for products with 2% of votes before 2020
  • for 2020 only included votes to 19 October
  • for each year can be more than 100% because voters can use more than one antivirus
  • show “?” where the product wasn’t an option in the poll. This mainly occurs for anti-malware products added in the 2020 poll

Note that Broadcom bought Symantec and Norton was spun off which is why it appears separately for the first time.

An alternative view is by initial release date:

Antivirus Free? Since 2018 2019 2020 2021
Sophos N 1985 2% 1% 2% 1%
Avira Y 1986 9% 4% 4% 3%
ESET Y 1987 8% 6% 12% 9%
Avast/AVG Y 1988 24% 13% 8% 7%
McAfee Y 1988 5% - 4% 4%
Broadcom Symantec Y 1991 5% 3% 2% 3%
Norton Y 1991 ? ? ? 1%
Dr. Web N 1992 - - - 1%
VIPRE N 1994 ? ? 4% 3%
F-Secure Y 1994 - - 2% 1%
Kaspersky Y 1997 6% 9% 8% 7%
Bitdefender Y 2001 12% 15% 14% 17%
SUPERAntiSpyware N 2002 ? ? 6% 4%
Bullguard Y 2002 ? ? 2% 1%
VirusTotal Y 2004 ? 9% 8% 6%
Windows Defender Y 2006 26% 41% 28% 31%
Malwarebytes Y 2006 ? 34% 44% 41%
Comodo Y 2008 - - 2% 1%
Emsi Y 2006 ? ? 2% 1%
Panda Y 2009 2% - - 1%
PC-Matic N 2009 ? ? 2% 1%
Zemana Y 2010 ? ? 2% 1%
Heimdal N 2010 ? ? 6% 4%
WebRoot Y 2011 4% 4% 6% 4%
HP Sure Click/Bromium N 2012 ? ? ? 1%
Qihoo 360 Y 2013 3% - - -
Cylance N 2018 - 2% - -
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