The Best Cheap Antiviruses of 2025: Antiviruses Under $9 Per Month

1. Norton Antivirus - Best Malware Protection

SecurityScore:

9.7 /10

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Product Specs

Virus Detection	Yes
Malware Detection	Yes
Firewall	Yes
Full, quick, and scheduled scans	Yes
Real-time protection	Yes
Behavior-based monitoring	Yes

View Plans Links To Norton

Norton Antivirus Plus delivers premium protection at a budget-friendly price point. It caught every malware we threw at it, including a ransomware variant that most other affordable antiviruses we tested missed. Not to mention, Antivirus Plus is Norton’s cheapest subscription at $2.50 per month in the first year. The renewal price after the first year doubles to $5 per month, but even at that price, it’s still one of the most affordable antivirus plans on this list.

Norton Antivirus’ Malware Detection

Norton uses machine learning to identify threats. It doesn’t just look at malware databases to identify files and programs with malicious code; it also looks at how they behave once accessed. That is what antiviruses call behavior-based detection.

Our tests show that this approach works. Norton found and detected every test we threw at it, including when we hid malware in an encrypted zip file. According to AV-Test, Norton also detected 100 percent of zero-day malware attacks, beating the industry average.2

For even more protection, the software updates its threat definitions multiple times daily, and these updates happen silently without interrupting your work. CPU usage during active protection averaged just 2 to 3 percent on our test systems. Then there’s also the web protection feature, which prevented access to 98 percent of phishing sites in our tests.

Norton Antivirus’ Pricing

Despite the top-tier protection, Norton’s prices are surprisingly low. The only thing we don’t like about their pricing structure is that you need to add more services to protect more devices. Here’s an overview of Norton’s pricing:

Norton Antivirus’ Additional Features

Beyond core antivirus protection, all of Norton’s plans come with extra features. At a minimum, you’ll get the Norton password manager we tested included in your subscription. Its integration works seamlessly across devices, and unlike many budget options, it doesn’t limit the number of passwords you can store.

Norton’s Smart Firewall also deserves praise for blocking suspicious network activity without constantly pestering you with notifications. To top it all off, the premium Norton with LifeLock plan adds one of the best identity protection services to your antivirus protection.

We also really like Norton’s Virus Protection Promise. With it, you’ll get a complete refund if one of your protected devices gets a virus and Norton’s not able to remove it.

>> Read More: LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Review 2025

Norton Antivirus’ User Experience

The user experience with Norton was great from the start. Its installer automatically removed conflicting software and configured Windows Defender to work alongside Norton’s features. The setup wizard also asked smart questions about our usage patterns and adjusted the protection level accordingly.

What impressed us most was how Norton handled the initial system scan. Instead of grinding our computer to a halt, it ran intelligently in the background, pausing when we needed full system resources for other tasks. It’s just that the scan took longer than expected, even with no other other processes running. It took a little over an hour.

2. Aura Antivirus - Best Bundle with Identity Protection

SecurityScore:

9.5 /10

View Packages Links To Aura.com

Product Specs

Virus Detection	Yes
Malware Detection	Yes
Firewall	No
Full, quick, and scheduled scans	No scheduled scans
Real-time protection	Yes
Behavior-based monitoring	No

View Packages Links To Aura.com

Aura’s antivirus is typically bundled with their comprehensive identity protection services. That combination gives proactive and reactive protection, blocking potential threats and minimizing damage to your identity and credit if a threat gets through. Aura makes this level of protection affordable with plans combining these services starting at $5 per month.

Aura Antivirus’ Malware Detection

Aura found and quarantined all of the test malware files on our computer during a quick scan.

Since Aura only recently released their antivirus software, third-party testing organizations like AV-Test have yet to publish any test results. We still ran our own tests with EICAR’s test malware files. We hid the files on our computer, cloud storage apps, and in emails.

Aura successfully detected 99.2 percent of threats with minimal false positives. It caught the malware in our email and cloud storage when we tried to move the file onto our computer with its real-time threat detection system. Its quick scans caught almost all malware hidden on our device, aside from a handful of times we hid it in encrypted files.

Aura Antivirus’ Pricing

You can get Aura’s antivirus by either subscribing to any of their identity theft protection plans or their antivirus-specific plans. Since you’re looking for an affordable option, we recommend their antivirus-specific plans just because they are cheaper than the bundles. Here’s an overview of Aura’s antivirus pricing:

>> Learn About: Aura Identity Theft Protection Costs & Pricing in 2025

Aura Antivirus’ Additional Features

What sets Aura apart is the identity monitoring layer. It monitors your SSN, credit reports, bank accounts, and even home title records for suspicious activity. You can get this feature from the Ultimate Plan ($5 per month). During our three-month test period, Aura sent relevant alerts about potential threats without overwhelming us with false alarms. It works just as well as LifeLock when paired with Norton, although LifeLock offers better insurance coverage.

Don’t want Aura’s most expensive plan? Even their mid-tier plan costing $4 per month includes data breach monitoring for your online accounts. This level of monitoring caught two instances of our test email appearing in data breaches within days of them happening, much faster than free breach notification services.

They also include a VPN with all plans. There’s no denying it will add to your online protection with its military-grade encryption. That said, they mostly rely on virtual servers instead of physical servers. This made a noticeable difference in our internet speed compared to when we tested NordVPN, one of the best VPNs with mostly physical servers.

Aura Antivirus’ User Experience

The user experience of Aura isn’t bad, but it could be better. The mobile apps, while functional, feel less polished than the desktop versions. There’s also no firewall enhancement, no system optimization tools, and limited customization options for power users. The antivirus section within the app is barebones.

What makes up for the lackluster user experience is Aura’s 24/7 customer support. It’s available via phone and chat, with U.S.-based representatives who actually understand the product. Response times, in our experience, averaged under two minutes for chat and immediate for phone support. The support team even helped us resolve a compatibility issue with our VPN software quickly.

3. TotalAV Antivirus - Best for Device Performance

SecurityScore:

9.3 /10

View Packages Links To TotalAV

Product Specs

Virus Detection	Yes
Malware Detection	Yes
Firewall	No
Full, quick, and scheduled scans	Yes
Real-time protection	Yes
Behavior-based monitoring	No

View Packages Links To TotalAV

TotalAV wins points for the best lightweight software with a user-friendly interface among budget antivirus options. The dashboard presents security status, system performance, and recent threats in a clean, easy-to-understand layout that won’t intimidate newcomers. We also like their system optimization tools that noticeably improved the startup time of our Windows 11 desktop.

TotalAV Antivirus’ Malware Detection

Just like Norton, TotalAV’s malware detection rates blew us away. They detected all malware samples AV-Test used (nearly 20,000) in their tests.3 In our tests, the real-time protection engine detected 97.8 percent of malware samples, with particularly strong performance against ransomware. However, it struggled more with sophisticated phishing attempts compared to Norton or Aura.

Although TotalAV doesn’t offer quite as many features as Norton, their software is more lightweight. That results in faster scans and fewer resources used to power their real-time threat detection system. Perfect for older devices. You can read more about these differences in our TotalAV vs Norton comparison.

TotalAV Antivirus’ Pricing

Unlike Norton and Aura, TotalAV clearly shows their renewal price instead of their first-year pricing. They only show their deals for your first year after adding one of their plans to their cart. You also need to wait a bit for the deal to pop up, which we think is gimmicky. Here’s an overview of TotalAV’s prices:

TotalAV Antivirus’ Additional Features

The system tune-up features feel like genuine additions rather than marketing gimmicks. It cleaned up over 30 GB of redundant files on our computer and disabled four unnecessary startup programs which resulted in a noticeable decrease in our computer’s boot time.

However, we’re not big fans of TotalAV’s VPN. We don’t think it’s worth the extra cost. Their password manager is a solid piece of software, but not worth it for an extra $50 per year, either. If you’re looking for those add-ons, we recommend Norton or Aura instead. Find out why in our hands-on TotalAV VPN review and Total Password review.

>> Check Out: The Best Password Managers of 2025

TotalAV Antivirus’ User Experience

TotalAV’s light system footprint made its user experience stand out. Full system scans completed 20 percent faster than the industry average, and the software used less than 100MB of RAM during idle periods. Its system cleanup tools also decreased boot time by 2 to 3 seconds on our test machines.

Similarly, TotalAV’s mobile apps provide solid protection without draining battery life. The Android version includes app locking, photo vault, and anti-theft features. iOS protection is more limited due to Apple’s restrictions, but it still offers web protection and data breach monitoring.

On top of that, the browser cleaner and privacy tools work across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, removing tracking cookies and clearing browsing history on a schedule you set. These features run automatically in the background without noticeable performance impact.