Why you may belief TechRadar
We spend hours testing each services or products we overview, so that you may be certain you’re shopping for the very best. Find out more about how we test.
Previously generally known as Webroot SecureAnywhere, now merely Webroot, used to have AntiVirus Primary, Web Safety Plus, and Webroot Full plans, which have been changed by Necessities, Premium, and Whole Safety packages, every supporting completely different numbers of gadgets and options, in addition to that includes household plans.
Regardless of the title change, at their core stays a curious little green-toned Home windows and Mac app (which turns to offended crimson if it encounters a risk), in addition to Android and iOS help, that takes an unconventional strategy to malware searching.
Particularly, different suites have a heavy deal with detecting recognized malware, usually requiring a bunch of background processes and common downloads of signature definitions, whereas Webroot spends most of its time on sensible conduct monitoring to permit it to detect the newest threats as quickly as they emerge.
This permits it to be amazingly compact, with the 15MB on our take a look at pc versus 1GB and extra for a lot of suites on the market. And since it’s not checking each potential file for recognized threats the scans are accomplished in a matter of seconds.
Regardless of its small dimension, Webroot nonetheless manages a prolonged function checklist, together with antivirus, real-time anti-phishing, an additional anti-ransomware layer, a easy firewall, community monitor, system optimization, a password supervisor, limitless cloud backup, and even a VPN with its high package deal.
Its id safety function features a set of instruments designed to stop web sites and malware from accessing your information. There’s safety from keyloggers, doubtful browser add-ons, cookie and web site information stealing, unauthorized display screen grabbers, you title it, Webroot’s bought it.
The interface reviews statistics about current scans and a button to launch an on-demand scan. A panel on the right-hand aspect offers entry to the stack’s different security measures and extra.
Plans and pricing
Webroot Necessities provides antivirus, anti-malware, browser safety, anti-phishing, and password supervisor, whereas masking one, three, 5, or 10 PCs, Macs, smartphones, Chromebooks, or tablets on the identical time, beginning at $37.49 for the primary yr, renewing at $49.99 per yr, for one machine.
Subsequent is Webroot Premium which incorporates every little thing from Necessities and throws in a system optimizer and id safety. It might defend 5 gadgets and one id for a person account, or households with 10 gadgets and 10 identities. Plus, you’ll rise up to $1 million in fraud bills and stolen funds reimbursement. Its pricing begins at $77.99 for the opening yr, renewing at $129.99.
Lastly, Webroot Whole Safety throws in every little thing that’s in Premium, whereas including a safe VPN, parental controls, in addition to automated cloud backup and restore with limitless storage for one machine. Its protection is identical as that of Webroot Premium, and it’s priced at $89.99 within the first 12 months, renewing at $179.99.
There’s additionally a 14-day free trial that doesn’t contain you handing over your cost particulars, so there aren’t any traps right here.
Setup
Putting in Webroot is kind of easy and speedy, which isn’t any shock contemplating that the package deal is so light-weight that there’s nearly nothing to do. Webroot can run fortunately alongside most different antivirus apps as effectively, with not one of the standard conflicts or hassles.
As a part of getting began with Webroot, you’ll have to arrange a web based profile, password included. The platform calls for a extremely sturdy password and signing in requires that you simply efficiently carry out the normal CAPTCHA testing.
After setup is full, Webroot launches, runs an preliminary system scan, and begins actively monitoring your system. Now you may as well run your personal system scan, which took underneath a minute on our take a look at PC however nonetheless managed to search out a few objects that different antivirus merchandise usually ignore. The app lets you overview or take care of any findings in a click on or two and proceed to depart Webroot defending your machine.
No matter you’re doing, you gained’t even discover Webroot doing its factor, because it doesn’t have any actual impression in your system sources. Actually, it solely added two background processes – one consumer software and one service, which normally consumed underneath 10MB of RAM, nearly as undemanding as an antivirus may be.
It’s also possible to study your protected gadgets from Webroot’s browser console and ensure their protecting shields are lively. Right here you may as well entry your subscriptions and renew them if wanted.
Antivirus
Webroot has a bit extra cluttered interface than a few of its opponents, that includes panels, icons, switches, tiny buttons, and loads of textual content, however it’s all neatly organized and decently easy, so it doesn’t impression consumer expertise drastically.
The app begins defending you instantly because it’s put in and the Scan My Laptop button is fairly distinguished, making it clear what you’ll want to do from the get-go.
That stated, finding different options is usually a bit extra difficult. As an illustration, there are a number of scan sorts, together with Fast (RAM solely), Full (native laborious drives), Deep (looking for rootkits, Trojans, and extra), and Customized (scanning particular recordsdata or folders), however you wouldn’t realize it as they’re buried within the interface.
You’ll have to click on on the little cog icon subsequent to PC Safety > Scan & Shields > Customized Scan to see what’s on provide.
Webroot may also add a right-click choice to scan any file or folder within the Explorer (‘Scan with Webroot’) and also you’ll have the ability to have the antivirus test them out at the same time as one other scan is already in progress.
That stated, whichever scan you select, you may be certain it’ll be speedy within the excessive. The Fast Scan lives as much as its title, finishing in a matter of seconds. The intensive Deep Scan gained’t take a lot of your time both – taking just a little underneath three minutes, and the remaining have been someplace in between.
Options
Webroot’s URL filtering comes within the type of the Internet Menace Protect browser extension that the app installs routinely in your default browser (Chrome, Edge, or Firefox). It options browser annotations (exhibiting the repute of the positioning you’re visiting), search annotations (repute of pages in your search outcomes), and real-time safety from malicious websites, together with these with phishing instruments.
With regards to the latter (phishing web sites that attempt to trick you into revealing your login credentials to allow them to get entry to your checking account, on-line procuring account, or social media profiles), Webroot additionally does a reasonably good job with its Phishing Protect, which you’ll activate and off in its Settings.
This system additionally provides what Webroot calls a firewall, nevertheless it doesn’t have a lot configurability we see with a number of the competitors. As an alternative, it does a lot of the heavy lifting by itself, searching for brand new and untrusted processes connecting to the web, alerting you about new connections made by untrusted functions, and asking you to approve or deny them.
Working apps are categorized into good, unhealthy, and unknown and the firewall fortifies itself when Webroot identifies an lively an infection, asking for permission to run unknown packages whereas leaving common actions like net shopping to proceed uninterrupted. When there’s no present emergency, it doesn’t intrude with packages attempting to entry the community.
Specialists gained’t be impressed by the shortage of management and it doesn’t put your system’s ports in stealth mode (leaving it up for the Home windows Firewall to take care of, which it does), with all of the apps current earlier than putting in Webroot thought-about trusted by default. Nevertheless, in any other case, this can be a welcome and strange addition to any antivirus package deal.
All packages additionally function a password supervisor courtesy of top-of-the-line LastPass, with all of its anticipated options, though its safety monitor report hasn’t finished it a service (we’re speaking in regards to the 2022 breach that’s still wreaking havoc throughout the board).
Then there’s the SafeStart Sandbox that consultants will respect and that we didn’t count on Webroot to have. Particularly, if you happen to’re an avid antivirus researcher, you should utilize this function to run doubtful packages in an remoted setting underneath detailed customizable limitations, making it inconceivable for them to switch your system.
The Antimalware Instruments dialog offers a utility to take away suspect packages manually, together with their related Registry entries. Whereas it’s not a full uninstaller, it may very well be useful and isn’t one thing we’ve seen from different distributors.
Right here, you may as well entry handy system restore options to repair the harm left behind after malware remediation, which incorporates an choice to ‘Set system insurance policies to defaults,’ fixing Activity Supervisor, Regedit, or one other imposed policy-type restriction with a click on. It’s also possible to reboot the machine into Secure Mode, take care of malware-modified desktop background, or reset your screensaver.
Improve to the Premium plan, and also you’re getting a useful system optimizer instrument within the Utilities part of the primary window and in settings that allow you choose information to wash up at any time when it runs, both on-demand or on a schedule. The scheduler might run on a each day or weekly foundation, or at a daily interval, as much as each 24 hours.
The Optimizer can even shortly wipe out ineffective recordsdata, liberating up the house beforehand occupied by them, however there’s no preview of what it plans to delete, nor do you get a report upon completion. Nevertheless, you may see a blow-by-blow checklist of issues it eliminated by going to the platform’s settings and System Optimizer and urgent the View Log button on the backside proper.
That stated, don’t fear, it’s solely short-term recordsdata and the Recycle Bin. Extra superior customers can configure the Optimizer to erase different forms of information, like login historical past, storage folder for recordsdata burned to CD or DVD, and reminiscence dump recordsdata.
On high of that, Premium additionally provides automated deletion of your net actions, whereas Whole Safety throws in a web based backup service with limitless safe storage for one PC or Mac (courtesy of Carbonite – OpenText owns each Webroot and Carbonite).
Safety
By way of impartial testing, neither AV-Comparatives nor AV-Checks have lined Webroot for years resulting from incompatibility, like Webroot’s prohibition of sending private information to the web and maintaining a journal of reversible actions whereas awaiting a verdict from Webroot’s cloud evaluation system.
We had extra luck with SE Labs, which incorporates Webroot in its House Safety exams.
Particularly, in the course of the SE Labs’ Q4 2024 Home Protection test, Webroot rated eighth, with a Whole Accuracy Score of 97% and the highest AAA award from SE Labs. Nevertheless, it ranked decrease than Avast Free Antivirus, Kaspersky Premium, McAfee Whole Safety, Norton LifeLock Norton360, and Sophos House Premium, which all scored 100%, in addition to Panda Dome with 99% and Microsoft Defender at 98%.
Inquisitive about what Webroot has been doing to guard your system when you weren’t trying? The Studies tab in its Settings lets you test its present and historic exercise. That is useful if technical help asks for accessible scan or risk logs. Additionally, if there’s a file you’re suspicious of, you may submit it to Webroot’s analysis group to have a more in-depth look.
Anti-ransomware
Webroot additionally options useful built-in anti-ransomware capabilities and will even roll again the consequences of encrypting ransomware in some instances (although not malware that encrypts or wipes the entire drive). That’s, if it even manages to get previous all the opposite layers of safety. That stated, this comes with a disclaimer – the corporate itself warns that the success will depend on accessible drive house.
Ultimate verdict
Webroot is an exceptionally light-weight antivirus with correct URL blocking and highly effective bonus options, however take a look at outcomes present it will not be as correct as the highest gamers within the antivirus discipline. Nonetheless, it runs surprisingly simply alongside different antivirus merchandise, maybe permitting you to run it alongside Microsoft Defender, which might do an important job of maintaining you protected.
We have additionally highlighted the best antivirus