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As we did some digging on Scanguard, we got here throughout the truth that it appears to be owned by Whole Safety LTD. Hopefully, which means it’s benefiting from the identical minds which can be behind the Whole AV merchandise. We’re optimistic that this might translate into quite a few updates over time, probably crystallizing Scanguard right into a extra premium providing within the antivirus & safety area. Nonetheless, Scanguard is its personal factor in the meanwhile, and it has quite a bit to supply regardless. It’s primarily a complete safety and optimization suite that covers the whole lot from viruses to PC enchancment by junk file elimination, a password vault, and even a VPN.
The providing begins off with safety features, which embody: superior real-time safety towards varied threats, together with malware, ransomware, spy ware, and adware, by specialised guards like Malware Guard, Ransomware Guard, Spyware and adware Guard, and Conscious Guard. You can provide many of the capabilities a free strive, as the corporate presents a free model of the applying for Home windows. The time it took to replace and apply the definitions within the free software was a bit worrying, we’re unsure whether or not it was a connection situation or the free model simply being sluggish. The preliminary scan, nonetheless, was fairly fast on a 512 GB SSD stuffed roughly to 30% of its capability. The whole scan took below 5 minutes, going by a malware scan, junk elimination, browser cleanup, and startup app test. A be aware of warning right here, because the app scans your PC for any monitoring cookies it finds, it would notify you, with an try and upsell you to the Professional model, so the cookie, or malware, will be eliminated. To be truthful, the corporate does provide a 90% low cost for those who’re making an attempt out their software program and musing whether or not to buy a license, which implies you may get Scanguard Important Antivirus for as little as $9 for the primary 12 months. Watch out for the value for the renewal license, although!
Options
The preliminary scan that we ran with Scanguard, referred to as “sensible scan” as we talked about, was fairly fast, masking malware, safety and privateness points, PC efficiency points, system junk, and duplicate recordsdata with only one click on. Nonetheless, if you wish to do a full system scan, which runs a extra complete test, be prepared to attend as much as 20 minutes. After all, there may be the Customized Scan choice if you wish to particularly goal some folders within the scan, probably rushing up your scan occasions. Within the settings menu, you’ll be able to moreover tweak your scan choices with a toggle for scanning: detachable drives, inside archives, particular file varieties, or scheduling a scan.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned 4 options make up the core safety providing, with the Malware Guard defending your PC from trojans and worms. The Ransomware Guard guards from hackers taking on your PC and recordsdata, Spyware and adware Guard deletes and blocks monitoring software program, and at last, Conscious Guard blocks pesky adverts. We’d additionally add the WebShield to this core, which protects you from malicious websites in real-time. Moreover, this function presents an online cache cleaner, which will be helpful for those who do choose to go to the “Low Belief” web sites the WebShield designates for you. It really works fairly properly, stopping entry to most well-known websites featured on PhishTank, although we did handle to entry some extra obscure websites, which had been blocked by different safety options, so keep vigilant no matter which safety answer you employ.
You’ll be able to improve your safety by putting in the free ScanGuard internet extension for browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari. It’s fairly useful in blocking undesirable browser notifications and clearing up your cookies with only one click on. Word, the Advert Block Professional is simply out there in case you have the Professional model (paid plan) of the answer. Talking of internet extensions, one other helpful one provided by Scanguard is the Password Vault browser extension, however for it to operate correctly, it is advisable arrange the Password Vault on the Desktop app first. When you achieve this, you should have entry to auto-fill and auto-save options, in addition to the password generator that can enable you to create safe passwords. We’d have appreciated to see some options like 2FA for the vault itself, and choices to share passwords, save notes, and recordsdata securely, however none of that was out there. Standalone password managers, like 1Password, provide far more, however Scanguard does cowl the fundamentals, so for those who want a extra superior password supervisor, you’ll have to purchase an extra one.
When you choose to pay for the VPN, which is an additional function, you’ll get the trade commonplace options comparable to knowledge encryption, a kill swap, and encryption protocols like IKEv2 and OpenVPN. There are roughly 100 servers, most of that are situated in North America and Europe, thus offering strong choices for circumventing geo restrictions. The speeds are acceptable when streaming or torrenting (out there just for non-US servers). We really feel that different premium suppliers like Nord provide a a lot better VPN, with secure and better speeds, in addition to further options.
When you’re nervous about id theft safety, apparently Scanguard presents some strong options on this regard. Word, we didn’t take a look at out the provide, nor buy it. It’s an extra service (paid individually), which covers darkish internet and social media monitoring, id restoration, misplaced pockets help, and as much as $1 million in id theft insurance coverage. You additionally get the Information Breach Test, which scans whether or not your passwords have been compromised as a part of a web-based knowledge breach. All it is advisable do is present your e-mail, and Scanguard does all of the heavy lifting.
Rounding off the provide is Scanguard’s system optimizer or tune-up utility, which covers junk file cleansing (together with duplicate recordsdata), an utility uninstaller, start-up supervisor, and a browser cleanup. The junk cleaner appears spectacular because it ran below a minute, eradicating some odd 300 MB of junk recordsdata from my PC within the first run. The duplicate scanner, alternatively, just isn’t excellent; it flagged two completely different movies as duplicates hidden in a large tree of folders, each had completely different names, lengths, sizes, and content material, so be sure you double-check earlier than letting the app take away the recordsdata by itself. The browser cleanup presents to clear your shopping and obtain historical past, cookies, and junk recordsdata out of your browser, velocity up the loading of internet sites, and put idle tabs to sleep. Throughout our take a look at, it labored fairly properly, we didn’t discover any points with it. Regardless of having some helpful options, we might have appreciated to see some disk optimization options in addition to some gaming boosters, as seen in another premium choices. Positive, there’s a “recreation mode,” nevertheless it merely makes certain no notifications or scans come up as you recreation, however there are not any PC efficiency tweaks for players with Scanguard.
When you’re an Android consumer, there’s a devoted app for you; nonetheless, for those who use an iPhone, then powerful luck, there is no such thing as a Scanguard app for you. On Android, you cannot get the app from the Google retailer, you need to discover the hyperlink to it within the Scanguard web site’s assist middle. Google will warn you that the app just isn’t secure. A lot of the Desktop options can be found on the cellular app as properly. They work with none points, however you don’t get superior safety features like SMS filtering, rip-off name filtering, and so forth. So all in all, the cellular expertise is a bit underwhelming, to say the least.
Pricing
Fortunately, Scanguard will get it proper with its pricing plan method, providing simply two pricing plans. The primary one is the free one, supplying you with some fundamental safety and a style of what the suite encompasses and presents. The paid plan prices $29 for the primary 12 months if you are going to buy by the location, and right here is the place issues get sophisticated. The positioning advertises $29 for the primary 12 months as a substitute of $99, which is your annual renewal value. But, for those who set up the free model of the app and from the choices menu click on on improve, you get a value of $9 for the primary 12 months, and a renewal value of $99. However wait, there’s extra! When you determine to make the acquisition, be able to pay for it utilizing solely PayPal, as there is no such thing as a different cost choice. Moreover, when you do undergo the acquisition, an upsell second arrives, providing the VPN as a service at an additional value, in addition to the Advert Blocker Professional.
The preliminary pricing technique and plan began off fairly promising, however the varied presents by the location and the app simply left a foul style in our mouth, loathing all the course of. Positive, we perceive that some advertising magic must be used to get one of the best gross sales outcomes, however speaking the whole lot in a single place and transparently makes far more sense in our guide.
The provide on the web site for the paid plan contains the next: real-time virus and phishing safety, cloud-based risk detection, and instruments to defend towards adware and spy ware. It additionally features a safe password vault, system tune-up instruments, disk and browser cleaners, and even an online defend extension to dam dangerous websites. With added Android safety, 24/7 buyer assist, and a 30-day money-back assure.
Safety
Checking dependable testing websites, you’ll solely come throughout a VB100 take a look at outcome for Scanguard from October 2023. It efficiently handed the take a look at on the time, however the web site states that Scanguard just isn’t VB100 licensed, because the take a look at outcomes haven’t been refreshed or achieved just lately. Nonetheless, the take a look at from October 2023 states that it achieved a detection price of 96.94%, efficiently figuring out 1,871 out of 1,930 malware samples. Simply as importantly, it scored an ideal 0.000% false alarm price, which means it didn’t flag any clear recordsdata as malicious throughout 100,000 authentic take a look at samples. This stability of sturdy malware detection and nil false positives demonstrated on the time that Scanguard gives dependable safety.
Ease of use
Scanguard has a phenomenal design philosophy, with a contemporary UI, a black, inexperienced, and blue coloration scheme, and enormous icons which can be intuitive and informative when you hover over them. Preliminary set up might take a while since all the databases want updating, nevertheless it’s not regarding. Underneath the settings tab, the whole lot is laid out logically, with most settings providing a toggle swap for straightforward customization. Regardless of having quite a few customization choices, it by no means felt overwhelming.
Remaining verdict
In the long run, Scanguard represents a peculiar provide within the safety suite area. Some issues, just like the malware safety and internet safety on the whole, it does properly; we might argue on par with some extra famend corporations. Then again, there are main points with the cellular app, which is tough to put in. To this, we might additionally add the pricing fiasco from the app to the web site, and the truth that no unbiased lab has examined Scanguard in 2025 to supply an perception into how properly it compares to the others.
All in all, for those who’re not too choosy or demanding, Scanguard can preserve you secure on-line, however realizing that there are a lot better choices within the subject, priced equally to Scanguard, it’s merely tough to advocate it as a go-to answer.