My neighbor said he pays $80 a year for antivirus and I almost choked

He was telling me this over the fence last weekend, bragging about his 'top tier protection'. I told him straight up that Windows Defender, which is free and built right in, is more than enough for 99% of people. He looked at me like I told him to unplug his fridge. Spending that much on extra software you don't need is just burning money, especially when the free option is already on your machine and gets updates automatically. Has anyone else actually compared the free stuff to the paid versions lately?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessacarter15d ago

Disagree on the free stuff being enough for everyone. My bank actually required a specific paid antivirus for online banking, it was in their terms. Also, if you have kids doing dumb stuff online, the extra controls in some paid suites are a lifesaver. Windows Defender is good, but it doesn't catch every weird phishing link or lock down a family computer the same way. For some setups, that yearly fee is buying real peace of mind.

lee_grant9715d ago

That's a really good point about banks having their own rules, actually. Makes me wonder how much of the paid antivirus market is just driven by those kinds of agreements with companies. Maybe for a lot of people it's less about the tech and more about checking a box for their insurance or something. The family controls are a whole other thing though, idk if there's a good free version of that.

hill.hugo12d ago

Ever wonder if the real money in antivirus is from selling your data, not the software? Makes those bank deals @lee_grant97 mentioned seem almost honest.