Short on time? Here’s a quick summary of the best alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows Defender in 2021: These third-party antiviruses have more effective malware scanners, are easier to use, and come with better and more advanced cybersecurity protections. other third-party antivirus programs, I found several antivirus programs that are much better than Windows Defender. And let’s say that you do get a virus, Microsoft isn’t going to help you - they’ll just tell you that you should’ve had another antivirus installed!Īfter comparing Microsoft’s antivirus vs. I spent several weeks testing out both Microsoft’s Defender and all of the top antivirus programs on the market, ranking them on malware detection rates, system performance, scan speeds, overall internet security protection, and customer support.įor starters, Windows Defender failed to block many viruses that other programs easily caught, and that’s because Microsoft doesn’t issue enough regular updates to the Defender database to make it able to detect the latest threats.
Malwarebytes - Good Anti-Malware Protection for Budget Users Panda - More Extras (and Flexible Pricing)
Kaspersky - More Advanced Parental Controls + Good Financial Protections BullGuard - Better Performance for Gamers TotalAV - Easier to Use (with Great Performance Optimization Tools) Bitdefender - Better Cloud-Based Scanning Engine (with Excellent Additional Features) Norton 360 - Best Antivirus Alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Defender in 2021 Is Microsoft’s Defender Antivirus Good Enough?.About Microsoft Defender Antivirus (aka Windows Defender).