Best Antivirus With VPN: Top All-In-One Security Software

Bitdefender Premium Security Plus (or Ultimate Security in the US) is the company’s latest mega-suite which includes all of its security products: antivirus, VPN, password manager and identity protection. The latter is what makes it ‘Plus’ and ‘Ultimate’ and it’s possible to opt for a cheaper package which doesn’t include the ID protection if you don’t want it.

Of course, you still get antivirus and VPN and Bitdefender has really stepped up its VPN game over the past year. Although it hasn’t quite managed to roll out WireGuard to all four apps, it’s there on Android and it now unblocks some popular streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. It didn’t allow us to watch any UK streaming services including BBC iPlayer, though.

There’s now a kill switch and various other features such as split-tunnelling and auto-connect, but their capabilities vary considerably between operating systems. And it’s a shame that (as with some others here) the VPN works only on the main four: Windows, Android, iOS and macOS. Nevertheless, this is still just about the best VPN from a traditional antivirus company that we’ve seen.

Bitdefender’s antivirus is excellent, providing strong security against all types of malware without slowing down your device.

If you do go for the top package with identity protection, you’ll benefit from a personal “Health” score which makes it easier to understand how much of your data has been compromised and how serious the breaches are. Of course, you’ll also get alerts any time there’s a new leak containing any of your details, as well as recommendations for what to do about it.

Norton is one of the best-known names in security, and also one of the most trusted. There’s little need to talk about how great its antivirus is: it’s had three decades to hone that to near perfection. (It also offers a 100% virus guarantee, so if some malware does make it onto your device and Norton’s techs can’t remove it, you can claim your money back.)

The VPN side of things has improved significantly over the past year or two, to the point where we’re happy to recommend it as a great alternative to the best standalone VPN services. It has been developed by Norton, rather than being bought in and branded as Norton – something that’s fairly common with other antivirus software providers.

Norton’s VPN has no data limits, so you can use it as much as you like. We also found that it was able to unblock US Netflix, which is good news if you want to watch those but don’t live in the US. It doesn’t unblock everything, and there are no apps for smart TVs or streaming devices, but it does let you choose from a list of 29 countries, and blocks ads when the VPN is connected.

On Windows and Android, you can even download torrents by selecting Torrent-optimised region from the list of locations. We’d still like to see a kill switch added to the iOS app, but there is one in the Windows and Android apps.

Beyond antivirus and VPN, Norton 360 Deluxe has plenty to offer, including 50GB of cloud storage, a password manager and identity protection. 

If you want a single subscription for all your security needs, Norton 360 Deluxe is very difficult to beat.

Avast One is a new offering from Avast, which is well known for its free antivirus. It’s available for Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone.

On the antivirus side, it uses exactly the same ‘engine’ as the paid-for Premium version of Avast One, so you’re getting the same top-notch protection without paying. And top notch it is, with excellent ratings from the virus test labs we follow, and it also warns you of potentially dangerous websites – you just have to install the browser extensions. Plus, it automatically protects the files and documents in common folders on Windows from ransomware.

We’re big fans of the friendly interface which is clear and easy to understand, and offers both dark and light modes.

Of course, there’s also a VPN as part of the bundle, and this is where the free version places some limits. You can’t select a location from the 35 countries available to paying users: it just connects to the fastest available server.

That means you can’t use it to unblock US Netflix or other streaming services. However, it does grant you 5GB of data per week which, considering you won’t be using it to watch video, is absolutely loads.

It’ll remind you when you might need to turn on the VPN, and it’ll do this when you’re on a shopping, banking or other ‘sensitive’ websites. It can also be set to connect to a server when your device connects to an untrusted Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, there’s no kill switch to protect your real IP address and data from ‘leaking’ out if the VPN connection ever drops.

But, for free, you’ll struggle to find a better antivirus and VPN bundle than this.

McAfee is a huge name in antivirus and its apps have a much friendlier interface than they used to. You’ll see meaningful messages that tell you what to do – or not to worry – rather than bamboozle you with worrying-sounding technical terms.

Like Norton, the antivirus side of McAfee is ace. It scores highly in tests from the independent malware-testing labs. And also like Norton, it bundles extras including a password manager and – relatively new for UK users (but old news for those in the US) – an ID protection service.

McAfee bought well-known VPN service TunnelBear a few years back, so it’s unfair to say that it’s simply using another VPN’s service branded as McAfee, though you won’t see any mentions of TunnelBear when you use the VPN.

Unfortunately, McAfee does still fall down on its VPN offering because it doesn’t reliably unblock streaming services. McAfee says it’s for security, not entertainment, so it’s suited to those who only need the privacy side of a VPN. And for that, it offers unlimited data, a choice of 50 countries and – on Android – the ability to choose which apps use the VPN and which don’t.

It’s disappointing that there’s no kill switch in any of its apps, so there’s a risk your data and real IP address could be exposed if the VPN connection ever stops.

This is why McAfee doesn’t place any higher on this list.

The Ultimate tier of Eset Home Security is the only tier that includes the VPN as well as the antivirus. That makes it relatively expensive, especially with there almost never being any discounts.

However, its core features perform well in independent testing. It was awarded an anti-phishing certificate by AV-Comparatives in 2023, with the company stating it successfully detected 99.6% of Android malware threats and 92% of all malicious URLs (with no false positives).

Unfortunately, there’s no such verification for the VPN, but it offers plenty of different servers and does a good job with unblocking streaming services.

Extra features such as ransomware protection and cloud-based malware analysis (Windows) and adware detection and anti-phishing tools (Android) are impressive, though they’re not available on iOS or Mac. Eset Home Security Ultimate simply isn’t a good choice if you primarily use Apple devices.

Just like McAfee, there’s also no kill switch, preventing it from being any higher in this list.